
Class DL 10 



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The Flag of Norway. 



A LITTLE 
JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



FOR INTERMEDIATE AND UPPER 
GRADES 



EDITED BY 

MARIAN M. GEORGE 



A. FI, AN AG AN COMPANY 
CHICAGO NEW YORK 






Copyright 1904 
By A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 



A Little Journey to 
Norway 

To VISIT the "Land of the Midnight Sun" in any 
season of the year except summer would be not only 
to miss the midnight sun itself, but almost to see no 
sun at all, even in the daytime. With only four hours 
of dim daylight in some parts of the country, and in 
other parts a twilight that requires artificial lights 
all day long, we should find a winter visit very un- 
satisfactory. 

The latter part of June or the first of July is the 
best time of all the year for a journey to Norway. At 
this season thousands of tourists from all over the 
world visit this country because of its grand and 
beautiful scenery. 

What shall we take with us to make our journey 
comfortable and pleasant? Warm clothing, by all 
means, for in many parts of Norway snow may f^l 
even in the middle of summer, and some of the immense 
snow-masses never melt. We shall need our rain- 
coats, too, for there are portions of this land where 
it rains a hundred days in the year! We shall take 
stout clothing for mountain-climbing, but no great 
amount of luggage, for there are few railways in Nor- 
way, and the native carriages are not made for carry- 
ing heavy baggage. 

Consulting our map, we find that Nbrway is the 



4 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

northernmost country of Europe, and with its sister- 
country, Sweden, occupies the Scandinavian Peninsula. 
It is about 1,100 miles long, and for a third of its 
length lies within the Arctic Circle. At one point it is 
only 20 miles wide, while its greatest breadth is only 
280 miles. But for what it lacks in width it makes 
up in coast-line. It is estimated that if Norway's 
coast-line could be stretched out in a straight line it 
would reach halfway round the globe! 

What gives Norway this great length of coast-line? 
It has hundreds, if not thousands, of sea-arms called 
fjords (fe-ordsO running sometimes a hundred or more 
miles up into the land. The shores of these fjords 
are mountains rising directly from the water's edge, 
some to a height of six hundred feet. 

Nowhere else in the world will you find a shore so 
calm and sheltered as that of Norway, for a fringe of 
islands, called the Island Rampart, 400 miles in length, 
skirts it on the west and forms a great breakwater; 
so that the water of the fjords is like a mirror. 

There are mountains in the interior as well as along 
the coast. On some of the mountain-tops the snow 
never melts. The snow masses are pushed down the 
mountainsides in mighty glacier-streams, which on 
reaching the warmer valleys melt and form the short, 
swift rivers which flow into the fjords. There are 
only seven or eight rivers in the whole country whose 
length is over a hundred miles. The largest river of 
Norway is the Glommen, and it is only 350 miles long. 
Into this river, through a tributary, empty the waters 
of Lake Miosen (Me-o'zen), the largest lake in Norway. 
Miosen is 60 miles in length, but, like most Norwegian 




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A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 5 

lakes, is narrow— a mere river-expansion. The lakes 
of the country cover nearly 2,900 square miles. 

Now, before we start on our journey to this remark- 
able land, let us plan our route so as to visit the great- 
est possible number of interesting places. We will, 
then, divide the tour thus: 

I. Post-travel from Christiania, the capita^ , to Molde 
(Mftl'de) Fjord. This gives us the opportunity to ride 
over a Norwegian post-road in one of the curious car- 
riages of the country, and also to see some of the most 
wonderful scenery of this land of wonderful sights. 

II. A trip from Molde to the North Cape, for a 
glimpse of the Midnight Sun. 

III. A voyage through the fjord region south of 
Molde, with short trips into the country. 

NORWAY'S CAPITAL 

So early in the morning does our steamer reach 
Christiania that we are only just astir. The first 
glimpse that we catch of the harbor, however, is beauti- 
ful — blue sky overhead, water of the deepest blue 
around us, and wonderful pine-clad hills beyond — 
while the air bears to us the odors of sea and forest 
and mountain. 

Christiania is at the head of Christiania Fjord, eighty 
miles from the sea. It has a fine harbor and is the 
chief trade center of Norway, as well as its capital. 
Here timber, pitch, matches, pulp, furs, mackerel, 
herring, cod, cod-liver oil, beer, and many other prod- 
ucts are brought, to be sent to other countries. To 
Christiania also come, for distribution throughout the 
country, those goods that Norway cannot produce for 
herself. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 7 

The wharves are busy places. Besides the Norwe- 
gian vessels, there are ships in the harbor from nearly 
all the European countries, but most from England 
and Germany. Good need there is of all this busy 
trade while the season lasts, for the harbor of Christi- 
ania, having cold land to the north, east and west, 
and a shallow sea to the south, lies frozen over for 
four months in the year. Then all vessels have to 
lie at Drobak, twenty miles to the south. 

Christiania is a city of 260,000 inhabitants. It has 
many large stone buildings, many parks and public 
squares, and well-paved streets shaded by beautiful 
trees. The dwellings are built in the French style, of 
brick and stucco lined off to look like stone. 

To most tourists the first place of interest is the 
Royal Palace — a large but plain brick building, painted 
a dull orange and surrounded by beautiful gardens. 
There are many fine rooms in the palace, filled with 
tapestries, curios, and paintings. We are told, how- 
ever, that this home of the king is neither so grand 
nor so beautiful as his palace in Stockholm — for we 
must remember that the King of Norway is also the 
King of Sweden. 

Aside from having the same king and acting together 
in foreign affairs, the two countries are quite indepen- 
dent of each other. Each has its own constitution, 
parliament, and capital. The king must be crowned 
in Norway as well as in Sweden; he must live three 
months of each year in Norway, and must open the 
Norwegian Parliament in person. He must appoint 
only Norwegians to office in Norway, and is here al- 
ways called King of Norway and Sweden, instead of 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 




OSCAR II, KING OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN 

King of Sweden and Norway, which is the title given 
him in the other half of his realm. This is all because 
Norway is somewhat jealous of her sister-kingdom, 
and fears being made subject to her. The king must 
also be a member of the Lutheran Church, for that 
is the religion adopted by the Government. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 9 

The present king, Oscar II, is one of the most gifted 
of monarchs. He is a fine musician, and it has been 
said that if he had been an ordinary man instead of 
a king, he could have won a fortune by his voice. He 
is not only a musician, but a poet as well. 

Oscar is a democratic ruler; he does not believe in 
holding himself aloof from his people. He gives fre- 
quent receptions to which any one may go, provided 
only that the visitor records his name in the royal 
register three days before the reception takes place. 
At these gatherings may be seen persons of every class 
and from every section of the country, mingling with 
those of the court circle. The king and the members 
of his family often ride in the street-cars, or even walk, 
instead of rolling through the city in a state carriage. 

King Oscar, although seventy-five years of age, is 
still one of the handsomest rulers in all Europe. 

We next visit the Parliament House. It is a large 
building with a wing at each end extending toward 
the front, and a central wing in the shape of a many- 
sided polygon. Here the Norwegian Parliament sits 
each year. It consists, like our Congress, of an upper 
and a lower house. Its members are chosen by elec- 
tors, and serve three years. 

Norway is divided into six provinces or dioceses, 
each called a stift, and having a bishop at its head. 
The stifts are divided into counties, each county under 
a civil governor. There are in all eighteen counties. 

Whoever visits Christiania must see the university, 
for it is one of the most interesting places in the city. 
It was founded in 1811, and is the only university in 
Norway. Here the young men and women from all 



10 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



parts of the country come, to the number of 1,500. 
The classes, we are told, are alwaj^s full, for the people 
of this land prize very highly a good education. The 
tuition is free to all native Norwegians who succeed 
in passing the entrance examinations. 

The university includes schools of law, medicine, 
and theology, and the faculty numbers over sixty 
professors, who are appointed by the king. Among 
these is Dr. Fridjof Nansen, the noted Arctic explorer. 
His department of exploration has an endowment of 
$150,000 a 3^ear for carrying on the work of exploration 
on the seas. 

The hospitals of the city are in charge of the medical 

department of 
the university. 
Here are also 
art-galleries, li- 
bra r i e s, and 
museums. 

In the market 
o f Christiania 




fruit, grain, 
vegetables, hay, 
wines, and fancy 
goods are all 
on sale, but the 
most interesting 
part is the fish 
market. Early 
morning is the time to visit it. The fishermen and 
women have brought their boats up close to the 
pavement, and are shouting out their wares. 



A FISHING BOAT 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



11 



Mackerel, cod, and herring are the chief varieties of fish 
on sale here, with occasionally fine lobster or salmon. 

Here, seated in one of the boats, is a fish-woman in 
quaint white cap, dark homespun skirt, and bright 
bodice. The fish 
which she sells 
she takes one by 
one from the net 
in the bottom 
of the boat. 

We must visit 
some of the 
shops and buy 
souvenirs to 
take away with 
us. The goods 
for sale are very 
tempting. Here 
are many pieces 
of the beautiful 

filigree silver which the Norwegians know so well how 
to make, and tankards and drinking-cups of all kinds. 
We see some very fine silver mugs, delicately chased, 
but most of the drinking-cups are of earthenware or 
china. Those of china, have bands of iron around them, 
and silver lids. One we notice has a coin set in the 
cover for an ornament. 

The sweetmeats here are quite unlike those at home. 
Some, tied up in crepe paper, are intended to be dis- 
tributed at funerals. We are shown one for a child's 
funeral — a little candy baby nestling in a big bow of 
crepe. 




IN THE MARKET 



12 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

Christiania, as the capital and the seat of a great 
university, has attracted many of the iUiistrious men 
of Norway — statesmen and councilors, musicians and 
artists, scientists and writers, as well as foreign min- 
isters and consuls. Its people are highly educated, 
refined and hospitable. They are fond of parties and 
balls, of music and the theater. The new opera house 
is one of the finest buildings in this gay city. 

Let us now take a fjord steamer and visit some of 
the summer villas. The fjord is dotted with beauti- 
ful islands, and on these are the summer homes of 
many wealthy families of Christiania. These people 
enjoy not only their island-homes, but also the shores 
and mountain slopes of the mainland. The hills 
around the city are covered with pine and birch, and 
here is to be found a variety of wild flowers — blue, 
red, pink and yellow. Lilies-of -the- valley and sweet 
violets grow wild here. Christiania has been called 
''The Garden of Norway." 

NORWEGIAN INDUSTRIES 

The pulp-factories at Drammen, near Christiania, 
attract many tourists. The greater part of Drammen's 
population cff 21,000 finds employment in the manufac- 
ture of pulp. Although there are nearly two hundred 
pulp-factories in Norway, this town is the chief center 
of the industry. It is on an arm of Christiania Fjord, 
into which empty the waters of many lakes and a 
number of rivers rising away up in the mountains. 
Thus there is a chain of waterways down which to 
float the logs used in the making of pulp. From 
Drammen, too, the pulp can easily be sent to any 
country of the world. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 13 

Wood-cutters work, sometimes all the year, in the 
mountain-forests, cutting the logs and hauling them 
to the streams. Beautiful Lake Spirillen to the north, 
and the streams flowing into it, are filled with logs the 
year round. So full of logs is the lake that every- 
where our steamer thumps and bumps against them. 
Think of the logs it must take to make the 1,200 tons 
of pulp which the mills of Drammen alone grind each 
day! 

It is feared the pulp industry and the sawmills will 
be the ruin of Norwegian forests, for the one takes the 
little trees and the other the big. Some idea may be 
had of the greatness of these two industries when we 
learn that there are, besides the 200 pulp-factories, 
nearly 400 sawmills. It is said that both industries 
together employ about 45,000 people. Only the 
fisheries surpass the lumbering business. In this 
country, where it takes a hundred years for a pine to 
grow large enough to yield a log twenty-five feet long 
and ten inches thick, something ought to be done to 
preserve the forests. 

The logs for the pulp-factory are cut into lengths 
easy to handle. These are put through a mill and 
ground into coarse fibers or shreds. They are then 
ground fine in another mill and mixed with water and 
chemicals. Only young trees are used for pulp, as 
the fiber of the old trees is too tough. 

Alongside the factories are wharves where steamers 
are moored while taking on their cargoes of pulp to 
be carried to foreign ports — some to the United States 
but the larger portion to England and France, where 
it is used chiefly for making paper. So the newspapers 



14 



A IJTTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



of London or Paris are very likely to come from the 
Norwegian forests. Much of the wood pulp, however, 
is made into coarse wrapping-paper. 

Though so much pulp is sent to other countries, a 
large amount is made into paper in Christiania. We visit 

a paper-mill, 
where the pulp is 
pressed into thin 
sheets between 
heavy rollers 
and carried into 
a warm place 
called the dry- 
ing-room. We 
visit, also, cot- 
ton-f actories 
and machine 
shops, for al- 
though Christi- 
ania has not 
long been a fac- 
tory city, her manufactures promise soon to be- 
come very valuable. 

Barren fegions and mountains form a large part of 
Norway. Only about 3^ square miles out of every 
hundred have a soil and climate suitable for tillage 
or pasture, so there is little grain or stock raised. 
Then, too, manufacturing prospers under difficulties, 
for while some iron, silver, and copper is mined, Nor- 
way has no coal with which to run the furnaces of 
smelting works and machine shops. 

''Why not turn the many, many mountain streams 




A MOUNTAIN HOME 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 15 

into water power for factories?" some one asks. This 
is done to some extent, but the raw materials for manu- 
facturing are not plentiful. Cotton and silk cannot be 
produced in this climate, and for some reason there 
are not many sheep in Norway, although it would 
seem just the place for them. The small amount of 
wool produced is woven on hand-looms in the homes. 

Modern farm machinery has only recently come 
into Norway, and is yet unknown in the remote regions. 
It seems more profitable to import farming imple- 
ments from the United States than to carry on their 
manufacture here. 

There is, however, one important industry in Nor- 
way which makes use of the water-power of the rivers, 
and that is lumbering. More than a fifth of the country 
is covered with forests, mainly of soft wood — pine and 
fir. The forest regions are for the most part in the 
interior, along the Keel, or mountain-chain of the 
Scandinavian Peninsula. 

Wood was once used almost entirely for fuel, but 
now peat takes its place. Wood is the chief export 
of Norway to America. It is interesting to know that 
our word deal comes from the Norse dl)el, or piece, 
meaning the planks into which timber is sawed, in- 
stead of the whole trunk; but as nearly all the wood 
we get from Norway is soft wood, deal has come to 
mean simply soft wood. 

The life of the Norwegian wood-cutter is very hard. 
The felling of the timber is done in late autumn and 
in winter. In some regions the cutter goes far into 
the forest, taking provisions to last for weeks and 
even months. He builds himself a little hut and fills 



16 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

the cracks with moss to keep out the cold. The door- 
way is so small that he must crawl on his hands and 
knees to enter. Indeed, when a heavy snowstorm 
has piled the drifts over his little hut, it looks like an 
Eskimo dwelling. 

Inside, a flat stone serves as a stove. No fancy 
cooking could the poor wood-cutter do on this rude 
stove if he should wish to ; but very simple food serves 
him. His bed is nothing but logs rolled together and 
covered with dry hay and moss. Thus he lives, alone, 
going home only once or twice, perhaps, during the 
whole season. 

The forests are in the coldest part of Norway. Often 
the wood-cutter must keep a fire burning all night or 
freeze. Sometimes he is obliged to drive his horses 
all night long, for fear of their freezing to death before 
morning. The horses are fed hay instead of oats, to 
keep them warm. Their work is to draw the tree- 
trunks over a prepared road to the nearest mountain- 
stream. Here the logs are left till spring, when they 
are floated down to the mills. Should they get jammed, 
the logger must jump upon them and push them 
apart with boat-hooks, being careful, however, to 
spring ashore before the mass dashes upon him. 
Wherever the falls of the river are very steep, canals 
are dug through which the logs are guided. 

All along the streams are sawmills and planing-mills, 
match-factories and paper-mills. In some of the 
latter not only wood but also birch-bark is made into 
paper. The wood industries together employ over 
100,000 men. This is not including those who work 
at home, making boxes, baskets, wooden trunks, and 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 17 

many other articles. The wood products exported 
each year are worth many milhons of dollars. 

At the wharves we see logs, lumber, pulp, and 
various wood-products, as well as other articles, being 
shipped to other lands. Much of the shipping is done 
in Norwegian vessels, for the abundance of ship-timber 
and a love for the sea have led the Norwegians to 
build ships to transport goods for other countries as 
well as for themselves. Although her ships are not 
so large as those of some other countries, Norway has 
a greater number of vessels in her merchant fleet than 
any other nation of Europe, except Great Britain. 
Her vessels go to nearly all the chief foreign ports. 

But Christiania must be left behind, since there are 
so many delightful things before us. Now for our first 
post-ride, for we are to travel by post across Norway. 
POSTING 

We find a pony and cariole waiting for each of us. 
The cariole is the national vehicle. It is a two- 
wheeled affair, something like a sulky, except that it 
has a little platform behind the seat for the luggage — 
and for the post-boy, who sits on the luggage, for the 
seat will hold but one. We pay our fare at the rate 
of six or seven cents a mile to the first post-station. 
Between slow-stations we shall have to pay but four 
cents a mile. 

The rope reins are handed us, for each must be his 
own driver. The post-boy goes along only to bring 
back the cariole. In response to a groan and a grunt 
from the post-boy, the pony starts on a slow trot. 
There is no whip, for Norwegians are very careful of 
their ponies. 



18 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



Like most Norwegian horses, our pony is a stout 
little cream-colored fellow with thick, short mane, 
long tail, and a dark stripe down his back. He 

is sure-footed and 
trusty, but not so 
swift as he might 
be. Four miles 
an hour, the sta- 
tion-keeper says, 
is what we may 
expect of him. 
Now that we are 
fairly started, the 
ponies fall into 
line, each as close 
possible to the 
cariole ahead. 

Along the road- 
side are big boul- 
ders, set close together to form a wall, and at one 
side stretches a telephone wire. Everywhere the road 
is smooth and fine. The roadbed was first dug down 
about three feet like a canal, then a foundation of 
heavy boulders was placed on it to make the road solid 
and to allow the moisture to drain off. Above this 
a layer of smaller stones was placed, while on top 
fine gravel and sand mixed with pounded slate were 
spread and packed as hard as asphalt. 

The roads of Norway were begun over a thousand 
years ago and are among the finest in the world, 
although as difficult to build as were the famous 
roads over the Alps. We are told it costs $3,000 to 




ii N(_)RWEGIAN 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



19 



build a single mile of road. There are about 18,000 
miles of roadway in the country, which it costs 
$1,500,000 a year to keep up. 

Almost before we know it we are at our first post- 
station, a farmhouse some ten miles from Christiania, 
where we are to change ponies and carioles. As 
we drive up to the door, the post-boy cries ''bur-r-r!" 
in a hoarse tone, and the pony stops. This is a fast 
station — that is, a station where a certain number 
of horses and carioles are required by law to be 
kept in readiness for travelers, so there is no waiting. 
At the slow stations, however, in the remote parts, 
we shall have to 
wait for the horses 
to be brought in 
from the field. 

These post- 
stations are kept 
by ministers and 
farmers along 
the road, who 
furnish horses, 
carioles and post- 
boys, and also 
meals and lodg- 
ing to travelers, 
instead of paying 
taxes to the Gov- 




A POST HOUSE 



ernment, for the Government owns the roads. In the 
poorer regions, or where a man's farm is small, he 
may work his horses until they are needed for 
posting. 



20 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



At each station we must register our names in 
the Government day-book. We must write, also, 
our starting point and the place to which we are 
going, the number of horses we use, and any com- 
plaints we may 
have to make. 
The Government 
makes it a point 
to see that tour- 
ists are w e 11 
served by those 
whom it employs. 
Each farmer 
along the way 
has his own strip 
of road to look 
after. It is 
marked by a 
stone bearing his 
name. If, then, 
the road in any 
particular part is not well cared for, it is at once 
known who is to blame. In winter, however, it 
is often impossible for each man alone to keep his 
road clear, so several land-owners go out together 
with great snow-plows to clear the way. 

There is no need of snow-plows now, however, 
for this is the summer season. All along the way 
are fields of hay, barley, hops, corn, fruit, and vege- 
tables, for we are still in the rich farming region of 
Southern Norway. The farms are in the river val- 
leys. They are not separated by fences or hedges. 




A NORWEGIAN HAY-FIELD 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



21 



but are divided off by landmarks. These are red 
posts, each bearing the name of the owner and the 
amount of land he owns. 

The hay-fields are an odd sight. Instead of stack- 
ing the hay, Norwegian farmers string it along on 
frames like high fences. They say it dries much 
better this way, for the sun shines on it and the wind 
blows through it, while the rain runs off. With as 
much rain as there is in Norway it is difficult even 
in this fashion to keep the hay from being spoiled 
by the dampness. 

Hay is very precious in this bleak country. The 
mowers in some fields cut very carefully around 
every tree and 
rock with a sickle 
and even with 
shears, that not 
a blade may be 
wasted. The hay 
frames are useful 
in winter as well 
as summer, being 
placed to break 
the snow-drifts. 

The Norwegian 
haj^-wagons are 
queer things. 
They seem little 
larger than a 
child's express 

wagon, while their wheels, often of solid wood, are even 
smaller than those of some toy wagons. This brings 




CURING THE HAY 



22 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

the carts near the ground, so that they may be drawn 
over very rough places, for the grass must be cut 
on the edge of precipices and in deep ravines. 

The corn, Kke the hay, must be carefully looked 
after. When it is cut in the autumn the shocks 
will not be allowed to stand on the ground, as is 
our corn at home, but each shock will be raised on 
a post to keep it dry, and away from the mice. 

This is a busy country. Even the women do much 
outdoor work. All along the way we see them cutting 
hay and stacking it on the frames, hauling logs, 
drawing carts, rowing boat-loads of garden-stuff, 
and fishing. In one place a woman is even cutting 
timber. Often women take their knitting into the 
fields, to knit while they rest from the field-work. 

A POST-STATION 

A day's cariole ride makes us glad that we may be 
sure of supper and a bed at the next stopping-place. 
The station is a pleasant, large farmhouse — or, rather, 
several houses, for one is the kitchen, one is the living- 
room, in another are the sleeping-rooms, and so on. 
Supper is ready, and we sit down with the family. 
The meal consists of salt herring, potatoes, flat-hrod, 
fish pudding, coffee, and several kinds of cheese, one 
of which is made of goat's milk. 

Although fish is one of the chief articles of food in 
Norway, except at hotels one seldom sees it fresh. 
The Norwegians always dry their fish. Potatoes are 
a favorite food, and the bread, called flat-brod, is of 
rye or oatmeal. It is rolled as thin as a wafer and 
baked in cakes a foot and a half across. At a distance 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 23 

you might almost mistake a loaf of flat-brod for a 
piece of wrapping-paper, so thin is it. It is baked so 
slowly that it is very hard and brittle. Enough is 
baked at a time to last for months. In fact, in some 
Norwegian households flat-hrod is baked only two or 
three times a year. 

Fish-pudding is the national dish, and is made of 
salmon or cod, or both. The goat's-milk cheese is 




IN A NORWEGIAN FARMHOUSE 

dark brown. It is made into large, square cakes and 
is served in very thin slices. Ours is in a perforated 
tissue-paper case, with a ribbon tied around the top. 
While we eat and chat with our host we notice his 
appearance and that of his family. The farmer is 
strongly built and has blue eyes and light hair and 



24 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

beard. He talks intelligently and is very polite, never 
even smiling at our mistakes in trying to speak Nor- 
wegian. He can speak a little English. His everyday 
dress is of homespun, but he is sure to have very gay 
clothes for holiday wear — short jacket and trousers, 
and bright waistcoat. 

The farmer's wife is pleasant, but not at all pretty. 
She, too — like most Norwegians — has blue eyes and 
light hair. Her dress is a short dark skirt, a white 
waist with a bright embroidered bodice, a striped 
apron, and silver jewelry. This jewelry has no doubt 
been in the family for years, handed down from gen- 
eration to generation. Some of it is fine filigree work 
and very costly. 

Our bed is built into the wall and we go up two 
steps to get into it. Like all Norwegian beds, it is 
much too short. For covering there are nicely dressed 
sheep and goat skins. The sheets, spun and woven by 
the housewife, are so small that there is no tucking 
them in. Every time we waken we find them on the 
floor. The pillows are either too big or too little. 
We must choose between a feather bolster nearly as 
large around as a barrel and a little pillow about four 
inches square and two thick. But, for all this, we have 
a fairly comfortable night and are ready to rise early 
in the morning to see something of farm-life in this 
region. 

Besides the house, there are barns and stables, and, 
above all, a storehouse. A Norwegian would rather 
have no dwelling than no storehouse. It is always 
a separate building of heavy timber, and is generally 
set up on posts to keep things dry, while on top of the 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 25 

posts are tin pans, bottom side up, to keep out mice 
and ants. The second story nearly always projects over 
the first. The door is very heavy and is strongly 
barred, for this is the farmer's treasure-house. 

Stored inside these houses are immense sacks of 
flour and meal, boxes of provisions, strings of flat- 
brod, and trunks full of clothing and bedding. The 
trunks are more like huge baskets than anything else. 
They are made of thin strips of wood woven much 
like baskets and painted in gay colors. Each girl in 
the family, when old enough to spin, is given one of 
these trunks. In it she stores away all the cloth she 
spins and weaves for bedding, table-linen, and towels, 
as well as the yarn and embroidery she makes. These 
she saves till she is married and has a home of her own. 

Little trunks of the same style, with handles, are 
used instead of suit-cases or valises for traveling, and 
very quaint they look. 

The barns are large enough for a great number of 
cattle, but only a few are here. Most have gone to 
the hill-farm for the summer, where they will stay 
till cool weather comes again. The son and two of 
the daughters keep the hill-farm. The boy watches 
the herd, and the girls make butter and cheese. 

At a little distance from the house is a small build- 
ing beside a stream. Here is a tiny water-wheel which 
turns the farmer's mill, so that he is able to grind his 
own corn. The water turns also the grindstone which 
sharpens his scythes and sickles. The farmer is his 
own blacksmith, and shoes the ponies tourists drive 
over the post-road. The farmer's family forms a little 
village of itself and must supply all of its own 



26 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

needs, for even the nearest neighbor Hves at a con- 
siderable distance. 

The life of the Norwegian farmer is at best a hard 
one. Often he works all summer and then loses his 
whole crop. Indeed, he must count on losing one 
crop in every five! Then he has to eke out a living 
for himself and family by joining the fishermen, or by 
going into the forest to fell trees. While he is away, 
his wife and daughters must earn something by spin- 
ning, weaving and knitting. 

The winter is a busy time in the farmer's family. 
The children must go to school for a part of the year, 
at least, for the pastor will not confirm them until 
they have finished certain studies, such as the catechism 
and church-history. And unless they are confirmed 
they will not be able to find employment in the cities 
or towns. 

Now our pony and cariole are waiting- to take 
us on, and we must say farewell to our kind host. 
The road is no longer level, but stretches over hills 
and sometimes along the ver}^ edge of a steep precipice. 
Here the big boulders have indeed a use. 

Now anS then we see the home of a poor farmer. 
Let us notice this one. The cottage is made of heavy 
spruce logs, and perches away up on the hillside. The 
roof is covered with birch-bark laid over the logs 
like shingles. On this is placed grass sod, in which 
bright flowers are now growing. Yes, and there 
is a goat on the roof, nibbling the grass! Inside 
there is little furniture, but there are always flowers. 
Like all Norwegian farms, however poor, it has its 
name. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 27 

NORWEGIAN FJORDS 

The farther we travel, the more rugged the coun- 
try becomes, for we are now approaching the fjord 
region, along the western coast. The mountains 
rise higher and the valley grows narrower. We 
are at last in the famous Romsdal, the most beauti- 
ful valley in Norway. The sides of the mountains 




THE ROMSDALHORN FJORD 

are seamed and scarred, and we see here and there 
a leaping cascade. These great walls of rock stretch 
for miles and in some places tower five and six thou- 
sand feet above us. The mountains press so closely 
together that the river is penned up- in a narrow 



28 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

gorge, where it foams and roars and thunders as though 
trying to escape from its prison. There is scarcely 
room enough for the road high along the mountain- 
side. 

Here is the giant peak, higher than all the rest, 
called the Romsdalhorn. It is said to be as difficult 
to ascend as the terrible Matterhorn in the Alps. 
Years ago an Englishman thought to win fame by 
climbing to the top, but he found there a heap of stones, 
telling that some one had been there before him, 
although no one could remember that the top had 
ever been reached before. Here, too, is one of the 
most beautiful of all Norwegian waterfalls. The Seven 
Sisters. It is so called because it is formed of seven 
separate falls, although sometimes there are but 
four streams to be seen. 

High up on these cliffs are perched little farm- 
houses, where it seems too narrow for a man to stand. 
There is a cottage two thousand feet up the moun- 
tainside which can be reached only by a zig-zag path 
beside the bed of a roaring torrent. Everything 
needed from below must be hauled up over the edge 
of the cliff by ropes, and when the farmer and his 
wife go out on the hill to gather their little crop of 
barley or hay, they must tether the children, as they 
do their goats, to the door-post or a tree. When 
one is to be buried from this mountain home, the 
coffin must be let down these two thousand feet by 
ropes. 

And now the beautiful Molde Fjord is before us. 
These fjords of Norway are somewhat like great river- 
mouths, or long narrow bays reaching far into the 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 29 

land, but they are really neither of these. They 
have no single strong current flowing to the sea like 
rivers, nor have the}^ a sandy beach like bays. They 
have what a bay has not, an island belt at their out- 
let. The fjord water is deep — much deeper even 
than the sea beyond the island chain. 

Fortunately for Molde, the cliffs rise to a great 
height on the north, shutting off the cold winds. Then, 
too, the Gulf Stream crosses the ocean from our own 
southern shores and brings a breath of warm air to 
this part of the country. Without it the greater 
part of Norway would not be habitable. To this 
ocean river the country owes its food-grains, its com- 
merce, and the ver}^ life of its people. 

The current, flowing along the west coast, keeps 
the fjords free from ice the whole winter through. 
While Christiania Fjord, far to the south, lies frozen 
four months in the year, Molde Fjord is never frozen 
over. It is warmer the year round, here in Molde 
(which is in sixty-three degrees north latitude), than 
in New York city. The temperature this June day 
is 80° in the shade, and many bathers are enjoying 
themselves in the fjord. 

Molde is one of the most beautiful of all Norwegian 
fjords. On one side snow-topped mountains, whose 
lower sides are covered with forests of pine, maple, 
birch, ash, and chestnut, stretch for forty miles. 
Birches here grow five feet in diameter. 

MOLDE 

The town of Molde, a place of 1,700 inhabitants, 
is beautifully situated on the fjord. Its houses are 



30 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



painted yellow and white, with red and dark-tiled 
roofs. Everywhere at this season on lawns and in 
gardens are roses, peonies, poppies, and honeysuckle, 
and ponds are covered with water-lilies. Everywhere 
in Molde are, also, cherries, the chief fruit of the 
country. 

What a fine situation Molde has for a summer 
resort — which, indeed, it is ! It is more easily reached 

from all parts of 
the country than 
almost any other 
town in Norway. 
The road from 
Bergen to Molde 
leads through 
beautiful scenery. 
The high-roads 
from Trondhjem 
(Tr6nd'yem) and 
the Swedish bor- 
der meet the one 
from Christiania 
and pass through 
the wonderful 
Romsdal. An- 
other road comes across from Chris tiansund Fjord to 
the north. Then, too, there are the sea-roads from 
the north and south. No wonder hundreds of Nor- 
wegians come to spend a part of the. summer here. 
Tourists, too, find this a delightful place to stop. 
One enjoys wandering about Molde's streets and 
looking at the flowers in the gardens and windows. 




THE RESORT HOTEL 



i 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 31 

for the Norwegians are very fond of flowers. A visit is 
paid to the shops for carved wood souvenirs, and silver 
filigree; then a coast steamer takes us into Trondhjem 
Fjord to the quaint old city of Trondhjem— or Throne's 
Home, as the name means — a twelve hours' voyage. 

Just out from Trondhjem Fjord lies Hitteren, the 
largest island along the Norwegian coast south of the 
Arctic Circle. In the harbor are anchored ships from 
many countries, and steamers from Christiania, Bergen, 
Molde, and other Norwegian ports, while ever3rwhere 
we see the quaint native fishing-boats patterned after 
the old Viking ships of long ago, with high prow and 
stern ending in a dragon's head. 

Like Molde, Trondhjem Fjord is never frozen over, 
although it is several hundred miles farther north than 
Labrador. Trondhjem's winter climate is as warm as 
that of Southern England. 

Our hotel is of painted wood with red-tiled roof. 
The bedrooms have no carpets and no light at night. 
We can easily do without a light, however, for are we 
not in the land of the midnight sun? If not exactly 
a midnight sun, we have at least a very late one, for 
at this season it does not set here until nearly eleven 
o'clock in the evening and rises again before two. 
While the sun itself is thus out of sight for about three 
hours, yet its rays light up the night so that one can 
at any time read even the finest print. What beauti- 
ful colors delight our eyes at sunset ! For a time the 
sky is red, then it grows pink, then orange, and next 
purple. Again at sunrise a beautiful pink glow ap- 
pears; this gradually changes to yellow, then greenish- 
blue, and then to the blue of a clear day. 



32 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

TRONDHJEM 

Trondhjem, a place of 30,000 inhabitants, is the third 
city in size in Norway. It has wide, well-paved 
streets. Its two principal streets cross, and from their 
intersection one may enjoy a grand view: on three 
sides are high mountains and on the fourth lies the 
beautiful sea. 

Here, too, is the marketplace. It has rows of stores 
and two rows of canvas-covered booths, where all the 
different wares are sold. Let us wait till the market 
opens. Peasants from the surrounding country come 
with their little wooden trunks filled with one or another 
of the dozen kinds of Norwegian cheese, with butter 
or vegetables, or coarse homespun woolen and linen 
goods. The women wear colored handkerchiefs tied 
over their light hair, bright knitted bands which cross 
over the shoulders, and full plaid skirts. The men 
wear bright jackets of coarse homespun, and heavy caps. 

The factories, paper-mills, shipyards, and ware- 
houses of Trondhjem are interesting, and show how 
its people occupy themselves. Trondhjem has, also, 
a marine arsenal and an Academy of Science. In the 
shops are • many pieces of the filigree silver we 
have seen so often before, enamel silver spoons, scarf- 
pins bearing the Norwegian flag in enamel, carved 
tankards, pipes, beautiful furs, cloaks of eiderdown, 
and reindeer antlers so large that one must saw them 
in two to get them into a trunk. 

Here in the shops gentlemen always take off their 
hats until their purchases are made, then shake hands . 
with the shopkeeper, who thanks them for buying of 
him. 



I 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 33 

Here is a beautiful cloak of brown eiderdown which 
the shopkeeper tells us is worth a thousand dollars. 
He explains that it is so expensive because it is made 
from the lining of the first nest, which is the finest. 

The eider duck builds her nest on one of the many 
little islands of the far North, and lines it with the 
beautiful fine down from her breast, which is light 
brown. The down is taken by the hunters, to be used 
for coats and capes. Then the nest has to be rebuilt, 
and this time the father bird lines it with the white 
down from his breast. This down is coarser, and is 
used for pillows and quilts ; it is never so costly as the 
brown. After being robbed the second time the birds 
build their third nest, but if this is disturbed, they 
leave it and go away. The eider eggs are about four 
inches long, and have a greenish-blue shell. Some 
people eat them, but they have a strong flavor. 

We must go down to the station and see the train 
from Christiania come in. Until something over a 
year ago Trondhjem was the most northerly railway 
station in the world, but now there is one farther 
north on the Swedish border. The railroad from 
Trondhjem to Christiania is 350 miles long, and has 
done much to unite these two distant parts of 
Norway. 

As we peep into the sleeper, we cannot help con- 
trasting it with our sleeping-cars at home. The car 
itself is not much wider than an omnibus. The berth 
is formed of the narrow cushion-seats pulled together, 
with nothing but a tiny pillow as furnishings. There 
is no mattress, or even a blanket. The upper berth 
is nothing but a small hammock sagging down to within 



34 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



a foot of the lower berth — a difficult bed to chmb into 
when the train is moving! It is uncomfortable, too, 
staying in such close quarters, for there seems barely 
room for a person without his traveling rug, or for the 
rug without himself! The rug would be a necessity 
in winter, for there is no way of heating the car. 

Although Trondhjem is not so beautifully situated 
as Molde, it is the most famous of all Norwegian towns. 




TRONDHJEM CATHEDRAL 



It has stood for a thousand years, and was, long ago, 
the city of the Norwegian kings. For this reason it 
is called the "Cradle of the Kingdom." Here still 
stands the cathedral where, since the days of King 
Olaf, a thousand years ago, the kings of Norway have 
been crowned. 

Trondhjem Cathedral is the finest church in Scan- 
dinavia, and one of the finest in Northern Eurpp^i It 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 35 

is built of blue-gray marble, quarried near by. Long 
ago it was much damaged by fire and was for years 
left partly in ruins. Some years ago repairs were 
begun, and they are still being carried on. A part of 
the money raised at the lottery which built the Christi- 
ania opera-house has been given for restoring this 
beautiful old building. 

We pay our fee and go inside. Here are beautiful 
stone and wood carvings. At the south end of the 
altar is a cast of Thorwaldsen's statue of the Saviour. 
There is a fine organ in the cathedral, and a deep 
well which is said to be connected with the sea. 

Two miles from Trondhjem is one of the finest 
falls in Norway, Store Lefos (Sto-ra La-fos), which 
is one hundred feet high with a great rock halfway 
up, around which the water dashes. 

A RICH FARM 

Trondhjem, like Christiania, is in one of the fertile 
regions of Norway. Everywhere around the city 
are grassy plots and flower-gardens. Off toward 
the sea stretch fields of rye, pastures, meadows, and 
forests of grand, dark pines. 

Let us visit one of the richer farms in the vicinity. 
We drive through avenues of trees to the house, 
which is 140 feet long and two stories high. Besides 
this there are the storehouse, the smokehouse, and 
also a kitchen, which is a separate building, while 
near by are barns and stables. These buildings are 
grouped together around a sort of courtyard. Here 
water is brought by pipes from the mountainside 
near by. 



36 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



We enter the living-room of the house. Here is a 
bed built in like the one at our first post-station. In 
fact; this is the kind of bed we shall find almost every- 
where in Norway. A bench extends around the room, 

but we are care- 
ful not to sit 
upon it until in- 
vited to do so, 
as this is the 
seat of honor. 
A rude table and 
chair, and hang- 
ing shelves are 
about the only 
furniture, except- 
ing a loom for 
weaving the 
coarse homespun 
for the family. 

The hay is 
brought to the 
barns in an odd way in this region! It comes slid- 
ing down ijO the barns on heavy wires from the 
soeter. 

The soeter is the hill-farm, such as nearly every 
rich farmer has at a distance up the mountainside. 
It is chiefly hay land and pasture. In early spring 
the cattle and sheep are taken to the soeter, to stay 
until late in the autumn. 

A log cabin with sod roof has been built on the 
mountainside and here some of the family (usually 
the older daughters and one of the boys) spend the 




THE FARMHOUSE 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



37 



summer. The fireplace is on the ground. There is 
no chimney — only a hole in the roof to let out the 
smoke. In cool weather, if the fire does not smoke too 
badly, even this hole is closed. The kettle is hung 
over the fire by a chain and pulley suspended 
from the roof. A bench extends around the 
room. 

The time of setting out for the soeter is a merry one. 
All is confus-on and excitement. There are so many 
things to gather together — churn, milk-pails, kettles, 
f ry ing-p a n , 
cheese-moulds, 
cups, plates, 
and sp o on s. 
The flat-bread, 
coffee, bacon, 
sugar, and salt 
must be packed, 
and the meal to 
mix with the 
skim-milk for the 
calves must not 
be forgotten. 
And, too, the 
woolen yarn for 
stockings, and 
materials for embroidery, must find a place, to help 
fill in the time for busy fingers during the sumnier. 

The soeter is several miles away, but all walk. The 
father strides ahead, taking with him a long horn of 
birch-bark, called a lur, with which to call the cattle. 
Following; close after comes the old horse with the 




WASH DAY 



38 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

load, and behind him the sheep, cows, goats, and pigs. 
The girls bring up the rear, with wooden yokes over 
their shoulders from which hang swinging pots, and 
pails of white pine. 

At the soeter the girls are very busy. As soon as 
the cows are sent to pasture for the day they begin 
the dairy work. One skims the cream and makes the 
butter, and another washes the pails and pans at 
the brook and feeds the calves. Then comes cheese- 
making. When enough butter and cheese have been 
made to send to market they are put into pails or 
done up in packages, and slid down the same wires as 
the great bundles of hay. Every moment not occupied 
with the dairy work is spent in knitting and em- 
broidering. 

If a stranger visits the soeter, one of the girls goes 
to meet him with a pail of milk. He is expected to 
say: ^'Do not waste it on me," but she insists and 
he takes a sip. She urges him to take more; he must 
drink all he can, or he will be considered impolite. 

At night the cattle, sheep, and horse must be fed. 
One of the girls puts on a belt from which hangs a horn 
of salt to fdled them. 

The soeter is very interesting, and so is the farm, 
but the time has come for us to return to Trondhjem. 
Our hostess has prepared coffee and smor-brod, a great 
dainty, which is merely white bread spread thickly 
with butter and sugar. Norwegian etiquette requires 
that we must prepare to go without partaking of this 
feast. Our hostess begs us to stay, and so of course 
we are persuaded to remain long enough to taste her 
dainties. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 39 

TOWARD THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

And now the first part of our journey is over, and 
the second begins. Trondhjem is the port from which 
steamers start for the voyage to the North Cape. We 
board our vessel, and are soon on our way to the most 
northern point of land in Europe. The North Cape 
is a four days' sail from Trondhjem, but we shall ex- 
pect to take about two weeks for the voyage to the 
Cape and back, as we wish to make several stops. 
Although a long voyage, it will be a calm one, for we 
shall sail inside the fringe of islands which extends 
along the whole western coast of Norway. 

The waters inside this Island Rampart, though deeper 
than the ocean outside, are usually like those of a vast 
harbor. 

Most of the way we are in sight of the mainland. 
We sail past snow-capped mountains that seem to rise 
directly out of the sea, and down whose sides flow huge 
glaciers, ending in rushing falls which pour into the 
fjords. 

The day after leaving Trondhjem we come to Torgen 
(Tor'gen) Islands, where the steamer stops for a couple 
of hours, that passengers may see the tunnel through 
the solid rock of Torghattan Mountain. This tunnel 
is 500 feet up the mountainside and was washed out 
by the sea when all the lower part of the mountain 
was covered by the waves. This opening, through 
which one gets a beautiful view of the sea. is 600 feet 
long and 200 feet high. 

More fjords, and snow-capped mountains, and gla- 
ciers, and we come to the Lofoden (Lo-fo'den) Islands, 
extending 100 miles out into the Atlantic and 130 



40 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

miles from north to south. Just southwest of the is- 
lands is the famous Maelstrom, (Mal'strum) which is 
formed by the tide pouring through a narrow strait, 
where the water foams and hisses over deep sunken 
ledges. Our steamer does not sail near this, however, 
but keeps well toward the coast, where the scenery is 
particularly fine. Many tourists think this scenery 
grander even than that of Switzerland. 

The Lofodens are the center of the greatest cod 
fisheries in the world, for sea-cod are found only in 
certain places and at certain seasons. East of the 
islands are three banks beneath the sea. Here in the 
shallow water the cod gather from the middle of Janu- 
ary to the middle of April. Then, indeed, are the 
islands and the opposite coast a scene of activity! 
Cod-boats like the old viking boats are everywhere: 
3,500 boats and 25,000 fishermen come here every 
year. These fishing voyages are made in the long 
winter night, when, for part of the time at least, these 
men have no light except the beautiful northern lights 
and the bright stars. In spite of all difficulties they 
carry away 25,000,000 cod each year. 

The nets ^re left in the same place for several days 
at a time, for the cod pile themselves one above an- 
other, till they are often more than a hundred feet 
deep. The fishermen call these enormous schools of 
fish "cod mountains.'' When they cast the nets they 
can feel the sinkers touch the fish. The cod are caught 
in the night, and each morning the nets are emptied, 
and mended if necessary. Sometimes a thousand fish 
are caught in a single night. 

The cod business is carried on under the direction 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



41 



of the Government. Fishermen are forbidden to go 
out in stormy weather, and anyone who disobeys this 
rule is fined heavily. Even in pleasant weather the 
fishermen must 
wait until an 
officer gives the 
signal to start. 
But in spite of 
these precautions 
cod-fishing is a 
dangerous busi- 
ness and many 
lose their lives at 
it every season. 
Boats by the 
dozen are found 
bottom up, with 
knives stuck in 
them where the 
men have tried to hold on. Some boats have 
handles along their keels, that the men may have 
something to cling to when capsized. 

The fishermen live in little huts along the shore, 
and here we see millions of codfish spread out, some- 
times upon the rocks, for the sun to dry, sometimes 
on wooden frames, where the air and sun both help 
in drying them. Many are split and salted and sent 
to France and Spain. In sheds along the beach the 
dried heads of the cod are hung. These are used for 
fertilizing the land, or are boiled with seaweed as feed 
for cattle. The oil made from the liver of the codfish 
is much used as medicine. 




A MOUNTAIN CAEKIAGE 



42 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

The hills on the mainland bear only birches and firs, 
the winters being too severe for anything else to live. 
Here tar is made in great quantities from the firs, 
which contain much resin. Only the roots of trees 
that have been cut down are used. Sometimes after 
the firs are felled for timber or pulp, the roots remain 
in the ground for years. They are finally dug up 
and split. They are a deep red in color, very hard, 
and so rich that, when they are burned, the resin 
flows from them. 

When there are not barrels enough to hold the tar, 
it is kept for a time in holes in the ground. The 
barrels, before being sent away, are fastened at both 
ends to long poles, and then sent down the nearest 
mountain stream. Some years 100,000 barrels of tar 
are sent away. 

TROnSOE, THE CITY OF THE LAPPS 

North to Tromsoe (Trom^so-eh), a Lapp town and 
an important fishing station, is the next stage of our 
journey. In the harbor the bones of a huge whale 
are floating. It has been speared and cut into pieces, 
and its blubber is being boiled in large kettles in a 
rude factory on the shore. Here are anchored seven 
more monsters from sixty to sevent}^ feet long. Their 
jackets have been taken off, and men are busy 
removing the whalebone and the blubber, which 
latter will be carried to the factory. When all is 
done, the big bones of the carcases will be split up 
like wood. 

Tromsoe carries on a brisk trade with Hamburg 
and Russia in smoked herrings and other fish, whale 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 43 

meat and oil. Vessels from Russia, German}^ and 
other countries are in the harbor. Every year the 
town sends out many ships to hunt the walrus and 
whale. The whale is found all the way from the 
Lofodens to the North Cape. 

Here in the harbor is a whaler. To one mast a 
barrel is fastened for a platform, and in this, on a 
whaling voyage, a man always stands to watch. 
When he locates a whale and gives the signal, a har- 
poon is shot from a cannon. When the harpoon en- 
ters the whale's body, a cartridge explodes, killing 
the animal The four points of the harpoon stick 
into the whale and furnish the means of drawing it 
ashore. From April to August is the whaling season. 

Let us visit the factory where the whale-oil is pre- 
pared. The blubber, and the flesh, which is much 
like pork, are cut up into pieces by machinery and 
put into boilers, to be tried out. From the boilers 
the oil is run through pipes into big tanks. Often 
one whale will yield sixty or seventy casks of refined 
oil. 

Not all the flesh is tried into oil. The best is canned 
and marked with French labels and sold as a delicacy. 
Some is dried and smoked or made into sausage. The 
scraps left in the boilers are dried and ground into 
feed for cattle, resembling ground coffee in appear- 
ance. The bones are used as a fertilizer for the fields. 
The whalebone — which hangs from the upper part 
of the mouth in shreds to help the whale hold in his 
mouth the food he gathers — is trimmed and cut into 
uniform lengths for the market. It is then washed 
in a solution of soda and spread out to dry. This 



44 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

whalebone (or baleen, as it is called in commerce), 
is very expensive. It is worth at the present time 
$15,000 a ton. All the products of the whale render 
a large one worth from $1,200 to $15,000. 

Tromsoe is often called the "City of the Lapps," 
not only from the number of these people in the town 
itself, but also from the Lapp encampment near by. 
Tromsoe, however, is not the only home of the Lapps. 
All that part of Norway and Sweden and northwestern 
Russia which lies within the Arctic Circle is called 
Lapland. There are in Norway alone nearly 17,000 
Laplanders. The name Lapp seems to come from 
Lappu, land^s end folk. What a fitting name! A 
brave people they must be, to make their home in 
this land of barren rocks, snow, stunted pines, birches 
and moss. To the north only birches can grow, 
and these are little more than shrubs. It is only by 
keeping their foliage as small as possible that trees 
or shrubs are enabled to live at all, for the whole 
year's growth must be finished in a few weeks. 

In the spring when the ice-sheet breaks up, the 
waters swarm with fish, and the reindeer-moss springs 
up from the almost barren rock. But for these, the 
Lapps must either perish or seek a better country, 
for the fish and moss provide them with nearly all 
they have. The moss is in some parts almost the 
only food of the reindeer. This wonderful animal is 
as dear to the Laplander as is the camel to the Arab. 
It furnishes milk, from which he makes butter and 
cheese. Its flesh yields him food and its skin clothing 
and tent-covering. 

There are two classes of Lapps, the Mountain Lapps 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORAVAY 



45 




LAPLANDERS 



and the Sea Lapps. The mountain dwellers are a 
roving people, because the reindeer-moss and little 
patches of grass are so scarce that they are soon eaten 
up and new pastures must be found. In the summer 
the deer seek the water, for even in this cold coun- 



46 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

try mosquitoes are very annoying. The Sea Lapps, 
although not wandering hke the Mountain Lapps, 
have at least two or three homes. In the winter they 
move to the coast for the sake of the cod-fisheries. 
In the summer they settle upon the banks of some 
river or at the head of a fjord. 

Here and there along the streets of Tromsoe we 
see Lapps, but they mingle little with the Norwegians, 
preferring to live by themselves. Some have fur 
clothing, while others have adopted something a 
step nearer the dress of their neighbors, and wear 
white woolen jackets with red, blue and yellow stripes. 
They are, however, very untidy. The fur caps they 
wear resemble inverted saucepans. 

Some of the Laplanders on the streets of Tromsoe 
have come from the encampment outside of town, 
to sell the trinkets they make. We look over the 
wares of one and find knife-handles and other articles 
carved from reindeer horns and walrus tusks, white- 
bear and reindeer skins, and sealskin boots, bags, 
and purses, as well as the eye-sockets, ears, and sec- 
tions of the backbone of the whale ! Curious souvenirs 
some of them are, if not altogether beautiful. 

An hour's brisk walk brings us to the Lapp encamp- 
ment, and such an odd village as it is! Everything 
is very rude and simple. Some families live in tents 
of reindeer skin stretched over poles, with a curtain 
for a door and a hole in the top to let out the smoke. 
Others have huts of stone and earth shaped like an 
Eskimo hut, with a rude wooden door. 

Let us enter one of the latter. It is about twelve 
feet high and eight or nine feet in diameter. The 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 47 

sods are held in place on the framework by stones. 
All around the inside there is a raised step of hard 
mud. This serves for tables, chairs, and beds, for on 
it the family eat, sit, and sleep. Their covering at 
night is a reindeer hide. In the middle of the hut is 
a pile of stones, which, when heated, form the stove. 
The fire on the stones is made of juniper twigs, and 
over it hangs a kettle suspended from three sticks set 
up together. 

We have been told that if we wish a welcome, a few 
trifling presents are to be taken along. As soon as we 
show them, the best place in the hut is offered us. This 
is exactly opposite the door. If there had been no 
gifts, then we should have been kept near the door, 
while our host questioned us about our native land. 
Now coffee and reindeer milk and flesh are offered us 
by the father, who always divides the meat among the 
members of the family. 

The Lapps are small people. Four feet and a half 
for women, and five feet for men, is a good height. 
Some have dark hair and blue eyes, but many have 
light brown hair and greenish gray eyes. The nose 
is flat, the mouth large, and the skin yellow and smoke- 
dried. 

The Lapps' clothing is chiefly reindeer-skin worn 
with the hair inside, though some of the people wear 
coarse homespun woolen shirts. The skin clothing lasts 
for years, and is often handed down from one genera- 
tion to another. The deerskin moccasins have sharp- 
pointed toes and are bound with red. One could 
scarcely teU a woman's dress from a man's except by 
the ength of her jacket and sometimes by the head- 



48 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



dress she wears, 
which resem- 
bles somewhat 
the old Greek 
helmets. When 
the helmet is 
not worn, she 
turns her hair 
up in an odd 
little knot. 

Here against 
one side of the 
hut stand the 
skis on which 
the father in 
winter tracks 
the elk or 
bear— one of the 
few pastimes 
of these hardy 
people. If he 
is so fortunate as to kill a bear, then indeed he is 
looked upoo as a hero, and besides being feasted for 
three days by the whole village, he ever after wears 
as a sort of trophy an odd decoration in his cap. 

The gayest thing in the hut is the baby's cradle, 
which hangs by a deerskin strap around the mother's 
neck. The boat-shaped cradle is itself made of skin, 
with a sort of hood over the baby's head. Into it the 
little Lapp is fastened by flaps laced together at the 
middle. His blanket is soft rabbit-fur. 

When the Lapp family goes to church, the father 




LAPLANDER BOY 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 49 

digs a hole in the snow outside the church and into 
it baby is dropped. Then the snow is piled over him 
except for a little hole through which he may breathe, 
and there he sleeps cozily till the father and mother 
are ready to start for home. 

Outside the hut nets are spread to dry. Here, too, 
are thrown fish-heads and whatever food the family 
and dogs have left. The Laplander loves his dogs 
and always shares his meat and porridge with them. 
Without these faithful animals he could never keep 
his herd of reindeer together, for often the deer must 
go far in search of moss and hay. 

The herd of the Tromsoe encampment numbers be- 
tween four and five thousand. The dogs must help 
keep all these animals in one place until all are moved 
to new pastures, when the dogs must drive them. 
It is the dogs, also, that keep away the savage wolves 
always lurking about watching for a chance to kill a deer. 

Most of the deer are now gone with their keepers 
and the dogs many miles inland, but enough are left 
to supply the encampment with milk, butter and 
cheese. The herd has just been driven in, for this 
is milking day. The reindeer, as you know, are 
milked but twice a week, and in some cases only once. 

One of the women throws a lasso over one horn 
of the deer to be milked and fastens it, and the animal 
stands quite still. A wooden scoop is held in one 
hand and the milking is done with the other. The 
scoop seems a very little dish to hold all the milk, but 
some deer, we must remember, give less than a coffee- 
cupful of milk. It is so rich, however, that water 
must be added before it is used. 



50 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

The milk is poured into a wooden keg with a cover, 
and a skin bag is filled for those who are to take the 
home herd out to pasture to-morrow. Little butter 
is made, and that little is almost like tallow. The 
milk is mostly made into cheese, or dried. For dry- 
ing, the milk is heated and the cream skimmed into 
a bladder and hung up to dry. The dried cream is 
called kappa, and is considered a great dainty. Stirred 
into hot water, it forms a porridge. In winter the 
milk is frozen into solid blocks and kept for months. 
For the cheese, rennet is added to the milk. When 
curded and dried it is packed in round wooden boxes 
and hung up in the smoke of the hut to be kept for 
winter. It, too, is considered a delicacy. 

The Lapps have but few table articles ; the most 
important are their spoons, which are either of silver 
or carved reindeer horn. Each member of the family 
carries his spoon in a little sack, and at meal time 
takes it out with care. When the meal is over all the 
washing it gets is given it with the owner's tongue, 
after which it is slipped back into its bag until the next 
meal. What an easy way of washing dishes! The 
plates are treated in quite as novel a way, being wiped 
with the fingers. 

The short summer is a very busy time for the Lapps. 
The hay for the deer must be cut and dried. It is 
placed in little stacks ten or twelve feet high with 
poles run through it to prevent its being blown away. 
All the wood must be cut in the summer, and the 
reindeer moss gathered before the heavy snows fall. 
The fish, too, must be caught and salted for winter 
use, and the shoe-grass dried. This shoe-grass the 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



51 



Lapps put into their deerskin moccasins when obUged 
to travel over rough, stony ground, and also n winter 
to keep out the cold. 

Besides all this, the pine-bark salt must be prepared 
while a hole can be dug in the ground. These people 

go south and 
gather the inner 
bark of the pine- 
tree, separate it 
into several thin 
layers, and dry 
it in the sun. It 
is then put into 
boxes made of 
the fresh outer 
bark of the pine 
and buried for 
a da 3^ in the 
earth while afire 
is made over it. 
When dug up the 
bark has turned a bright red, and tastes sweet. It 
is used like salt, to season food. 

The Lapps raise a few vegetables and fruits, but 
these cannot be depended upon. In the gardens 
here we notice rhubarb, currants and blackberries, 
radishes, small potatoes and barley. Fruit bears 
only one year in three, and often the barley does not 
get ripe, so short is the summer. The ice breaks up in 
May or June and freezes again in September. Nine 
or ten weeks must see the rye, oats, and barley both 
planted and harvested. 




A BURDEN BEARER 



52 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

When the Laplander moves, as he does so often, 
the re'ndeer must carry what tents the encamp- 
ment possesses. It is harder to move in summer 
than :"n winter, for then the deer must carry the 
loads on the r backs instead of drawing them in sledges. 
On curious pack-saddles, made of two pieces of wood 
rounded to fit the deer's back, the load is balanced. 
Several loaded deer are then tied together. Before 
setting out, the master whispers in the leader's ear 
the place to which they are going, and the stops to 
be made on the way, firmly believing the animal un- 
derstands it all. 

The reindeer draws his master from place to place 
on a low, boat-shaped sledge. It is lined with furs 
and is usually large enough only for one, or at most 
two. The harness is of deerskin and is very simple. 
Sometimes it is merely a skin strap fastened to one 
horn for a rein, and a collar with straps which fasten 
to the sledge. In spite of its awkward appearance, 
the reindeer is a swift and sturdy traveler, often 
going a hundred miles a day. How fortunate this 
is for the Laplanders, for their winter home is far 
south, in ^^weden, where moss is more plentiful. They 
once went to Russia, but there the deer were taken 
from them, and had to be bought back at auction. 
In Sweden, as in Norway, these poor people are more 
kindly treated. 

But Tromsoe, with its Lapps, is only one of the 
interesting points of this Norwegian tour, and Ham- 
merfest, the most northern town of the world, awaits 
us, From Tromsoe to Hammerfest is almost a day's 
journey by steamer. The coast is very dreary and 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



53 



desolate. Glaciers appear often, and the trees have 
become 'ewer and smaller Only small birches and 
junipers are to be seen. The grass grows in patches 
little bigger than a newspaper; yet these plots are 
called meadows. Does anyone wonder that every 
blade of grass is so carefully gathered? 

The air becomes colder, and here and there we 
see blocks of ice floating in the water. Soon we 
pass genuine icebergs, and after a little are able to 
see whence they 
come. Down one 
of these dreary 
mountains flows 
a glacier, such 
as we have often 
seen since leav- 
ing the Lofodens. 
But in this high 
latitude the air is 
not warm enough 
to melt it before 
it reaches the 
foot of the 
mountain, so it 
slowly slides ^^^'^'^^ ™^ mountains 

down into the sea and there breaks up into icebergs. 
This is the Jokel (Yo'kel) glacier, and the onty one 
in Norway which reaches the ocean before melting. 

Away up here in this region of perpetual snow, 
of glaciers, and dreary mountains, is a copper mine. 
It is the most northern one in the world successfully 
worked. Five hundred men are employed here. 









- .-■'* 


^^%^^ 


^ 






■^^^^^ 


^1 






.j^^H 


w 








^ 


■m^^ShI 





54 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

THE NORTHERNMOST TOWN IN THE WORLD 

And now we steam into the harbor of Hammerfest, 
the most northern town in the world. How different 
from reading about it 'n our geographies is the actual 
be'ng here ! There are ful y fifty vessels in the har- 
bor, flying English, German, Russian, Swedish, and 
American flags, as well as Norwegian craft of every 
description. Here is an -English vessel unloading 
coal, there a Russian one from Archangel which 
has bravely plowed its way through the stormy Arctic 
seas with its cargo of flour. I will return laden 
with cod-liver oil. Hammerfest has a thriving oil 
trade with Spitzbergen and Russia. 

Here are other vessels taking on cargoes of dried 
or salted cod, cod-liver oil, sealskins or whale oil, 
for Hammerfest is one of the chief fish-markets of 
the world. Here are brought not only the cod, whale, 
and other fish caught by Hammerfest fishermen, 
but also a goodly number of those caught much 
farther south. Everywhere along the shore here, as 
in Tromsoe and the Lofodens, are fish hung up on 
frames to dry. Indeed, there are fish everywhere! 
The beach' is covered w th them, and even the air 
smells fishy. In Hammerfest one eats fish, drinks 
fish, smells fish, and breathes fish. If there were no 
fish, there would be no Hammerfest. 

While Hammerfest is only about sixty miles from 
the North Cape, yet its harbor is sheltered and its 
shipping safe. Although a thousand miles north 
of Christiania — whose harbor, we found, "s frozen 
four months in the year — the port of Hammerfest 
is never frozen, for even hor3 the warmth of the Gu.f 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 55 

Stream is felt. This, however, is about the hmit of 
its influence, for not far to the north it is lost amid 
the Arctic ice. This ocean current brings these 
northern dwellers a gift from southern lands in the 
driftwood it bears upon its bosom — trunks of palm 
trees and giant ferns. 

Away up here is a town of 3,000 people, yet after 
all not so far remote from the rest of the world, for 
a telegraph line gives direct communication with 
Christiania, and so with foreign countries. Here, 
too, are schools, a church, and a weekly newspaper. 
On the streets we see fishermen, sailors, Russian 
captains with long beards, and Finns and Norwegians 
in the dress of other lands. 

The spot on which the town is built, however, 
is barren. There are no trees — only bare rock. The 
streets are narrow. The principal one winds to suit 
the curve of the shore. There are many warehouses 
and a few fine houses, though most of them are of 
wood. 

Hammerfest has a hospital with fifteen beds. This 
is especially for fishermen, whose dangerous calling 
takes them out in the severest season of the year. 
Nuns, who have given their lives to this good work, 
are the nurses. Sometimes, too, the hospital ship 
of the British Missionary Society comes into the 
harbor. Its cost was $50,000, and it is used solely 
in the great fishing region which stretches for six 
hundred miles around the North Cape and the west 
coast of Norway. Last year over eleven thousand 
patients were treated, and forty-five tons of good 
books were distributed among: them. 



56 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

In this most northern town is the meridian shaft 
which tells the number of degrees between it and 
that other meridian shaft at the mouth of the Danube 
River. It is a round granite column with a globe 
resting above its capital. 

We must, of course, catch a glimpse of the midnight 
sun, which does not once set from May 13th to July 
29th, and which, when once he hides his face, does 
not appear from November 21st to Januar}^ 21st. 
But this long night is relieved in Hammerfest by the 
electric light, which is kept constantly burning during 
this season, although, as at Tromsoe, the sky is no 
darker than ours at twilight. The beautiful Aurora 
Borealis, too, lights up the winter sky with its stream- 
ers of rosy light. 

Directions here are quite as confusing as the time 
of day. To see the sun in the north at midnight, 
watch it ascend without . having dipped out of sight, 
and circle about in the heavens through the day, is 
bewildering to one accustomed to see it rise in the 
east and set in the west. 

When this summer sun. does smile upon the North- 
land, all Me quickly responds. Plants sometimes 
grow three inches in a single day. Vegetables and 
fruits mature in six weeks. Flowers do not close 
in sleep. The sea-gulls and other birds fly all night 
upon their way. We have even seen a gentleman light 
his cigar by the sun's rays with the aid of a sun glass. 

It is three o'clock when our steamer leaves Ham- 
merfest, for it is a seven-hour voyage to the North 
Cape, and we must be there in time to row ashore 
from the vessel before midnight. We wish to stay 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 57 

only long enough to see the midnight sun from this 
most northern rim of Europe, for the Cape and its 
island are uninhabited except for the sea-fowl that 
make it their home. 

The waters of the Arctic Ocean are clear and of a 
beautiful blue. The air is pure, and we are always 
within sight of glaciers. The wind is very strong, 
so that it is difficult to walk from stern to prow of our 
ship. Regularly, even during the winter, freight steam- 
ers make the trip around the Cape to Vladso, on the 
Arctic Coast. It seems wonderful that their crews 
can endure the terrible cold and storms of the winter 
night off this dreary shore. 

The North Cape is on the Mageroe (Ma'ger-6-eh), 
the last island of Norway's Rampart. It is washed by 
the long, sweeping waves of the Atlantic, and by the 
stormy waters of the Arctic. The Cape is a mass 
of bluish-gray slate rock 1,000 feet high, with sides 
deeply cleft and sloping directly down into the sea. 
Down its side slowly moves a glacier. 

There is no wharf at which the steamer may tie up, 
so we are rowed ashore in a small boat, and clamber 
over the rocks till we come to the foot of the cliff on 
the east side. Here is a path to the top beside which 
a strong rope is passed through iron rings fastened 
to the rock by heavy staples. The first part of the 
way is easy climbing, but soon it becomes very steep 
and difficult. The last part of the ascent is over a 
mossy slope. The way to the summit is marked by 
a line of white posts joined by a wire. 

Off to the east is Bird Island, with its cliff more 
than a thousand feet high. Here the sea-gulls and 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 59 

other birds gather by thousands on the rocky cliffs, 
and utter the most deafening cries when disturbed. 
To the north Hes the dark Polar Sea which seems to 
have such a charm for explorers. This is about as 
far north as any but these brave men ever attempt 
to go. 

Although the Cape is only about eighteen degrees 
from the North Pole, we find here a few bluebells, for- 
get-me-nots, and bright yellow Arctic poppies, along 
with the dwarf-birch, which, though a hundred years 
old, seldom grows more than a foot in height. We 
must remember, however, that it is now the summer 
season and this is the coast where still a tiny breath 
of the Gulf Stream's warmth reaches, brought by the 
sea winds. In winter the north of Norway, especially 
at a distance from the coast, is a most desolate region. 

On the top of the cliff is a brown granite column 
to mark King Oscar's visit here many years ago, 
and a beacon to commemorate the German Emperor's 
visit a number of years later. 

Now a rocket is fired from the steamer, to tell us 
that if we wish to see the midnight sun from this far 
northern spot we must be watchful. As we turn to 
the north, there, seemingty about twenty feet above 
the horizon, the sun rests for a few moments, then 
slowly rises to begin another dsij. We hasten down, 
the cliff and back to the steamer. 

Before we know it the four days of the return voyage 
are at an end, and our vessel again enters Trondhjem 
Harbor. We have finished the second part of our 
Norwegian tour. The beautiful fjord land, the his- 
toric groimd of Norway, now awaits us. Molde 



60 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



Fjord comes again into view, and here the steamer 
is about ready to start for the south. 



QEIRANQER 

To the south of Molde Hes Geiranger Fjord, one 
of the grandest in Norway. The fjord is not so 
long as many, and is yery narrow, being nowhere 
more than a few yards wide; yet its sides rise almost 
perpendicularly to a height of 5,000 feet. So steep 
are their gray granite slopes that seemingly a cat 
could scarcely climb them. At certain points a stone 

dropped from the 
top of the preci- 
pice must fall 
directty into the 
fjord. 

Thmk of sailing 
for miles through 
this awful chasm! 

Geiranger 
abounds in water- 
falls — eyen in this 
land of falls the 
fjord is famed for 
its great number. 
We are seldom 
out of sight of 
them, and often several are to be seen at once. 
Some are lost in spray before they reach the 
fjord, while others seem to drop directly from 
the clouds. Here is a beautiful one. Its streams 
cross and recross, separate and unite many times, 




WATERFALLS EVERYWHERE 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 61 

forming a network of silver threads lijke a bit 
of rare lacework spread on the side of the dark 
precipice. On the opposite wall is Pulpit Rock, 
and very much like an old-fashioned pulpit it looks. 
Here and there, on a little ledge of these steep 
mountainsides, some brave Norseman has built his 
home. A wearisome climb it must be up the path 
for two thousand feet or more; yet the farmer is 
obliged, we are sure, to come down this steep cliff 
often, for here at its foot is his boathouse, while just 
outside is moored a neat boat with quaint red 
sails. His boat Is as necessary to him as his log hut, 
for his poor little farm alone will not support his 
family, and he must eke out a living by fishing. 

HERRING FISHERIES 

From Geiranger Fjord to the southern coast of 
Norway stretches the great herring ground. This 
fjord region is as famed for herring as the Lofodens 
for cod. The herring, like the cod, is mostly sent 
to other countries, while the mackerel arid haddock 
are kept for home use. 

There are three herring seasons — spring, summer, 
and winter. The winter is the most important season. 
The herring do not stay in the same place throughout 
the season. When a shoal appears, word is sent to 
the fishermen. To discover their presence in the 
daytime a submarine telescope four or five feet long 
is placed in the water. At night a piece of lead is 
fastened to a cord and let down into the sea. The 
fish can be felt moving it as they swim about. Then 
boats are launched, and the herring season begins. 



62 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

Thousands of men and hundreds upon hundreds of 
fishing boats are engaged each year, and each year 
milhons of herring are sent to other countries. Quanti- 
ties of the herring exported are pickled. 

Salmon also is found in abundance in the fjord- 
country, chiefly in the rivers. The salmon fishing 
is largely in the hands of foreigners. These fish are 
very shy and hard to catch. To decoy them, white 
marks and stripes are painted on the rocks along the 
fjords and rivers, and planks painted white are floated 
in the water, to imitate waterfalls ; for the waters near 
the falls are the favorite haunt of the salmon. They 
are then caught in nets. 

Salmon is a favorite dainty in Norway, where it is 
called lax. On the steamers and in the hotels of the 
larger towns salmon is served in all sorts of ways — 
boiled, fried, broiled, smoked, in salad, jelly, and 
pudding. 

THE LARGEST GLACIER IN THE WORLD 

To the south of Geiranger lies another wonderful re- 
gion, a region of fjord and mountain and glacier. Af- 
ter sailing to the head of beautiful Eid Fjord we leave 
the . steamer and visit Justedal (Yoos'teh-dal), a 
mountain nearly 8,000 feet in height which bears 
upon its summit the greatest snow-mantle of all 
Europe. Think of 600 square miles of snow that 
never melts! From this vast snow mass — called 
the Justedalsbrae — several huge glacier streams flow 
down the mountainsides in diiTerent directions. 

This glacier of Justedalsbrae is six times as large as 
the largest Swiss glacier. Like most Norwegian gla- 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



63 



ciers, it lies lower than the Swiss glaciers, and so is 
easier to reach, for there is less mountain-climbing 
necessary. The reason for this is easily seen. The 
climate of Norwegian valleys is so much colder than 
that of the Swiss that the glaciers flow m.uch farther 




IN A NORWEGIAN FJORD 

down the mountainsides before melting. The ice 
of this glacier almost reaches the sea. 

There is a constant groaning sound made by the 
glacier, caused by the breaking apart of huge 
blocks of ice in its slow decent. What seems at a 
distance like a little bank of snow is probably a wall 
of ice eighty or a hundred feet high. What look like 
wrinkles to us are crevasses or chasms hundreds of feet 



64 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

deep, and the seeming puff of smoke which now and 
then comes from it is really an avalanche of snow and 
ice. Along its edge are rocks and boulders which it 
has torn from the solid rock wall of the mountain 
on its way down. We have no wish to venture over 
this dangerous ice-river with its yawning gaps and 
falling ice masses. Some travelers do venture, how- 
ever. There are men who act as guides, and who seem 
utterly fearless in these dangerous places. 

SOGNE (SOQ'NEH) 

To one who loves grand and awful scenery, Sogne 
Fjord, to the south of Eid, is the gem of all Norwegian 
fjords. It is the longest and deepest fjord in Nor- 
way, and sends off the greatest number of arms. The 
depth of the fjord is in some parts 4,000 feet. Then 
think of sailing for a hundred miles between per- 
pendicular cliffs in many places 5,000 feet high! 
The barrenness of Sogne's rocky shores adds much 
to their solemnity and grandeur. 

Everywhere are deep gorges filled with masses 
of snow, or with mighty glaciers which almost reach 
the fjord before melting. Often there is no sign of 
life anywhere upon the steep shore. The mountains 
rise silent, grim, and forbidding! The stillness op- 
presses one. Seldom do we see pasture lands, orchards, 
or cornfields. 

Now we enter one of the finger-tips of this arm 
of the sea, which ends in the famous Laerdal Gorge. 
We leave the steamer and ride up this ravine. Here 
the Laerdal River has cut its way amid cliffs which 
rise on either side to a height of nearly 5,000 feet. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 65 

The space between these mountainsides is scarcely 
wide enough for the river as it dashes and foams 
along, almost deafening one with its roar. The only 
place for a road through this narrow valley is on the 
brow of the steep precipice. Here a roadway has 
been cut out of the solid rock and flanked by boulders. 

When this roadway was laid out, the engineers 
had to be lowered over the cliffs by ropes. It is 
enough to take one's breath away to be whirled 
around the sharp turns of the river while driving. 
On one side are towering cliffs, on the other the preci- 
pice at the foot of which the Laerdal seethes and 
foams. 

Upon emerging from this valley, on our return, 
we are glad to stop for a rest at the little village where 
the river empties into the fjord, for this scenery, so 
grand and awful, causes a terrible strain upon one's 
nerves. And there is grander to come. 

A few more hours on Sogne bring us to that 
branch called Naerofjord, counted the most sublime 
of all these ocean arms. Here we sail beneath 
towering cliffs where a deep twdlight surrounds us. 
The captain tells us that for most of the year the 
sun never shines down into these awful depths. On 
looking up we can see only a narrow rift of sky like 
a ribbon floating far above us. To gain some idea 
of the vastness of these mountains one must com- 
pare them with objects upon their sides. Cattle 
grazing here seem to the naked eye like mice, while 
a church steeple appears no more than a foot high. 

So winding is the Naerofjord that often the cliffs 
seem to close before us and we imagine the head of 



66 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



the fjord is reached, but a sudden turn in our course 
opens up vast distances beyond. The waters are 
a ])eautiful green. It is not known to what the color 
is due — whether to their great depth or to the clear- 
ness of the air. 
Even the breasts 
of the white sea- 
gulls seem thited 
with green when 
they fly near the 
surface of the 
water. 

After a few 
hours on Naero- 
fjord we come to 
its head, where 
the fjord chasm 
is continued in 
N a e r o d a 1, or 
Naero Valley. 
This valley, also, is so deep that the sun reaches it 
for only a few hours even on the longest day of 
summer, 'and most of the year not at all. 

The valley is really a part of the fjord, only with- 
out water. Once the ocean must have entered it, 
as now it enters the fjord. In places the mountains 
rise five thousand feet without a tree or blade of 
grass upon their sides. One curious mountain is 
called the Jordalsnut. It is shaped like a giant 
thimble, and glitters in the sunlight, for here the 
valley widens a little. Up the valley winds a road- 
way, blasted out of the solid rock in places, and built 




THE VALLEY 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 67 

up everywhere with masonry. This road is so steep 
for horses that tourists, if able to do so, are required 
to chmb it on foot. 

There is a mighty waterfall on each side of the 
road here, and although the valley winds and turns 
constantly, one or the other fall is in sight for a great 
distance. These two waterfalls are the most beauti- 
ful of the nineteen that we have counted in the Naero- 
fjord. Though surpassing even the celebrated Giess- 
bach in Switzerland, they are not looked upon as 
equal to several others in Norway. 

Not far from the Naerodal is a road with nearly 
as interesting scenery as this valley itself. The 
drive has twenty-seven turns in only a short dis- 
tance, and at each turn some new and beautiful 
picture comes into view. 

BERGEN 

From Sogne we pass on to Bergen, the "Rainy 
City." It is said that out of the 365 days in the 
year, Bergen has 134 rainy days, 26 snowy days, 
and 40 or more foggy ones! For this reason the 
neighborhood is sometimes laughingly called "The 
Fatherland of Drizzle." 

There are many amusing stories told about Ber- 
gen's rainy weather. A Bergen seaman once came 
into his native port when the sun was shining, and, 
never having seen it shine there before, thought he 
must be in the wrong place, and immediately sailed 
out again. Bergen horses, it is claimed, shy at a 
person who does not carry an umbrella. It is said, 
too, that a rain-coat and umbrella are the first presents 
given to a child born in this ^'weeping city." 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 69 

The town is built upon a hill sloping directly from 
the harbor. The locality is quite different from the 
hills around Sogne, for it has green meadows and 
orchards. A lake on this hillside supplies the city 
with water, through pipes. 

Bergen harbor is long and narrow and has a line 
of wharves and warehouses for nearty its whole length. 
Bergen is the second city of Norway in population 
and is Norway's chief fish-market for all the world. 

The boats which bring the fish from Lofoden Islands 
and other points at the north have very high bows, 
so that when the fish is piled high about the mast the 
helmsman can still see the bows to steer by. They 
usually have a large square sail, gaily colored. This 
is soaked in a preparation of oil and tar, to prevent 
mildew. 

Ships from nearly every country in the world are 
loading or unloading at the wharves. The cargo 
they bring may be flour, grain, coal, machinery, 
cotton, or livestock, but the cargo they take away 
is sure to be herring, dried or salted cod, cod-liver 
oil, or whale-oil. Hundreds of thousands of barrels 
of pickled herring are exported each year. 

The warehouses in which the fish are stored stand 
very close together. They have sharp-pointed, red- 
tiled roofs, and are very old and quaint. The first 
warehouses in Bergen were built hundreds of years 
ago by the Germans. Merchants of the famous 
Hanseatic League came here and gained control of 
all the wood and fish trade of Norwa}^, compelling 
all Norwegians to send their fish first to Bergen. 
Thousands of German traders from Hamburg, Lubeck 



70 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

and Cologne came to Bergen to exchange their wares 
for fish and wood. 

The Hanseatic League, let us remember, was in 
those days very powerful. Although the League 
has not existed for centuries, yet the fish-trade still 
centers in this quaint old city. Germany still car- 
ries on a rich trade with Bergen and supplies Norway 
with most of its foreign goods. 

Here stands one of the old Hanse houses of the 
fourteenth century. Its second story contains curios 
of those olden times. The scales and weights are 
of two kinds — one kind for buying and one for selling. 
Here also are ancient German clocks and watches 
patterned after the ^'Nuremberg eggs," lanterns, 
snuff-boxes, candlesticks, drinking cups and tankards, 
machines for cutting cabbage, and lamps in which cod- 
liver oil was burned. The third story has offices 
and bedrooms. These beds are even more curious 
than the Dutch beds. They are like the berths of 
a ship, closed on one side with hinged or sliding doors. 
On the other side they have shutters opening to a 
passage beyond, so that the maids could make the 
beds without going into the rooms. 

Early each Saturday morning the fish-market opens. 
Let us visit it. On the shore 150 or 200 fishing- 
boats are drawn up, and there the owners cry their 
wares. All Bergen must be out to buy fish, judging 
by the crowd around the railing. There seems to 
be more cod than anything else, but we see some 
fine large halibut. Some must surely weigh 150 
pounds. These are cut in large slices, as steak is 
cut in our home markets. Besides the cod and 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



71 



halibut; there are herrings, flounders, and haddocks. 
And what wrangling there is over prices! The 
buyers try to beat down the fishermen, and the fisher- 
men put up their prices so they may be beaten down 
and still sell for a good price. The two even come 
to angry words sometimes, but they do not lay it 
up against each other. The prices really are ridicu- 
lously low; for a small sum one can buy fish enough 
to last a family a week. 

But fish is not the only thing sold on fish-market 
day. Here are long tables of vegetables, fruit and 
flowers. Here 
and there are 
rosy girls with 
firkins of butter 
swinging from a 
wooden yoke 
over the shoul- 
der. A pint of 
berries, a bunch 
of flowers, a 
string of onions, 
is often all one 
person will bring, 
yet nothing is too 
small to be sold 
at market. There 
is no time wasted waiting to sell these trifles, for 
while the good women wait for a customer, they sit 
and knit stockings or darn old ones. They seem 
almost as busy as the German women of the Black 
Forest, who plait straw as they walk along the streets. 




GOING TO MABKET 



tZ A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

Such quaint dress as one sees here! Wooden 
shoes, with no heel and only a little toe, are worn by 
the peasants. In front of us is a young man in knee- 
breeches, a jacket with open rolling collar, and a 
quaint hat. Over there we see a group of girls in 
gay scarlet petticoats and black jackets. But here 
is the queerest dress of all. It is the Saeterdal cos- 
tume of trousers that reach to the arm-pits, and a 
short waistcoat trimmed with rows and rows of 
silver buttons. The fish-women wear blue woolen 
gowns, gaudy handkerchiefs, thick mufflers, and a 
round cap with a white band around the forehead. 

Bergen is a busy city. It has churches, banks, 
hotels, shops, museums, art-galleries, theaters and 
parks. Its streets are noisy with the many drays, 
wagons, and carriages rattling over the stony streets. 
People are hurrying this way and that. Children 
are on their way to school with books in knapsacks 
thrown over their backs. 

Bergen has excellent schools. In the common 
schools church-history and the catechism are taught. 
Besides the common branches, the boys have athletics 
and milit§,ry drill to prepare them for the army. 
School-hours are from nine to twelve and from three 
to five. The industrial school is for girls between 
the ages of seven and sixteen. One half the time is 
given to study, and the other half to needlework. 
It is interesting indeed to see five hundred girls 
hemming, darning, cutting garments, and knitting! 
They are very ambitious to learn, and very pains- 
taking with their work. 

After a day of sight-seeing we are glad to get back 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 73 

to our rooms and rest. Our hotel is a roomy two- 
story building with a steep red-tiled roof, and dia- 
mond-paned windows which open out and have boxes 
of flowers in them. The room given us is clean, but 
very plain. The chief thing in it is the bed. And 
such an array of pillows and coverings we have never 
seen before. The bed itself is small — very small. 
There is first a mattress, while on that, at the 
head, is a wedge-shaped pillow sloping from eight 
or nine inches in thickness to one inch. On top of 
this is a broad, square pillow and over all a sheet too 
small to tuck in (Norwegian sheets never tuck in), 
another pillow, loose blankets ready at any moment 
to slip off, and finally a fourth pillow, a coverlet and 
an eider-down puff! What work it must be to make 
a Bergen bed and be sure that each pillow is in its 
proper place! 

For dinner there are ten kinds of cheese and nine 
kinds of sausages on the table, besides smoked reindeer 
tongue, sardines, smoked salmon, and flat-bread. 
In addition to all this, beef is brought in. It has 
been finely chopped and mixed with suet, eggs, milk, 
cracker-crumbs and spice, and fried in balls. For 
dessert we have a dish altogether new to us. It is 
thick sour milk mixed with sweetened bread-crumbs 
and fruit syrup, and served with sweet cream. 

Our breakfast is equall}^ hearty. It consists of 
boiled and fried salmon, hacked steak, omelet, four 
kinds of cheese, flat-bread, pickled herring and coffee. 
Luncheon brings hot and cold fish, chopped meat 
rolled into balls with rich gravy, white and brown 



74 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

bread, red cheese in large balls, and our choice of 
tea or coffee. 

The shops of Bergen are among the finest in Nor- 
way; that is, they contain just the things tourists 
wish to buy as souvenirs. The shopkeepers, too, 
are very polite and honest. Indeed, so honest are 
the Norwegian people that one noted traveler, who 
could not speak the language, used to hold out a 
handful of money in payment for lodging or souvenirs 
and let the people take their own pay. He felt sure 
he would never be cheated. 

Let us enter this shop. If our purses were only 
twice as full, we might perhaps go away satisfied. 
The most prominent articles of sale in this, as in 
all Bergen shops, are umbrellas and rain-coats, for 
nothing is so popular as these, not only for birthday 
gifts, but also for confirmation presents. But as 
we are well supplied, we turn from them to what in- 
terests us more. 

Here are quaint old tankards, beautiful enamel 
silver brooches, filigree- chains and bracelets, and 
costly eiderdown cloaks, rugs, and quilts. We see 
a great deal of the colored embroidery used on girdles 
and bodices, and curious knives carved from wood 
or made of steel- many of these latter are etched with 
Norwegian flags. This tray is full of beautiful carved 
ivories, while over in the corner are dolls in native 
costume. ' 'Almost as many different costumes as 
there are in the Black Forest," we cry, and imme- 
diately decide that dolls must be among the souvenirs 
we buy. 

Bergen is a gay as well as a busy town. It is the 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 75 

starting point for tourists to Hardanger and Sogne; 
so through all the tourist season its streets are gay 
with the costumes of people from other countries. 
The band plays on Sunday afternoons after church, 
and then all the best people promenade. There is 
much merry chatting and happy laughter, but never 
any disorder. 

Although Bergen is much visited by people from 
other countries, yet here are still found many quaint 
and ancient customs. One of them is Flytledager, or 
Change-day. Change-day is the time servants change 
their places, and comes the middle of April and the 
middle of October, since servants here are hired for 
six months. 

On these days servants leave their old places at 
two in the afternoon and go to the new at nine in the 
evening. The few hours between are made use of, 
you may be sure. The maids all put on their best 
clothes and spend the afternoon and early evening 
promenading the streets, where they are joined b}^ 
their friends. At no other season are Bergen streets 
gayer than on Change-day. 

Norway has had many illustrious men, but none 
has given to the world more joy than Bergen's 
famous son, Ole Bull, the great violinist. Let us 
visit the cemetery where he lies. A bronze urn five 
feet high marks the spot where he rests. On it are 
these words: 

ALL HAIL, THOU BLESSEDEST BARD OF SONG 
DIVINE THY BOW 

His grave looks out over the beautiful Bergen Bay 
he loved so well. 




OLE BULL, THE FAMOUS VIOLINIST 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 77 

A visit must be paid to his island home, which is 
still owned by his family. It is not far from the 
city, and is called Lysoe, or ^^Isle of Light." The 
old monks gave it this name seven hundred years 
ago. Lichen-covered boulders and low hills cov- 
ered with birch, spruce and pine make up the six 
hundred acres which constitute this beautiful home. 

The house consists of a hall and two or three ser- 
vants' cottages. The hall itself is yellow with a 
tower at one corner and a portico in front. Winding 
stairs lead to the music-room on the second floor. 
Here the great musician lived on the happiest terms 
with his peasants and poorer neighbors. Every year 
he gave them a feast and dance. One of the dainties 
of the feast was always smbrbrod. The guests always 
brought their own fiddler. Ole Bull dearly loved 
to make these people happy. 

We make a special trip to the old church of Bor- 
gund, wliich, although a good distance away, well 
repays us. 

It is a wooden building, black with age and also 
from the coats of tar which have been put upon it 
to preserve it. In shape it is a little like a Chinese 
pagoda, its six tiers of roofs being very sloping and 
its gables tipped with crosses or with the beaks of 
ancient Viking ships. 

The church was built eight hundred years ago, 
and is the oldest complete building in Norway. Its 
width is only twenty feet, while its length is forty 
feet. The roofs and sides are covered with long 
shingles having rounded lower edges. Inside, it is 
open to the roof. The only light which enters is 



78 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



through a kind of cloister around its base. There is 
no longer any service held in this quaint old 
building. 

AN ENQINEERINQ FEAT 

And now let us see what railroad engineering in 
Norway is like. Nowhere else can we understand 
this better than on the road from Bergen to Vos- 
sevangen, a distance of sixty-seven miles. We learn 

that the trip will 
take four hours. 
It seems as 
though we have 
only nicely start- 
ed when suddenly 
we find ourselves 
in one of the 
tunnels for which 
this road is fa- 
mous. Another 
and another — 
and still another ! 
In such quick suc- 
cession do they 
come that we 
have to give all our time to counting them. We fear no 
one will believe us when we say that in the sixty- 
seven miles we have counted fifty-five tunnels; yet 
this is actually true! Two trains each way a day 
are run between these two places. 

The hotel of Vossevangen is rather a pretentious 
three-story building of modern style with many 




CARRYING BERRIES TO MARKET 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 79 

gables, and a piazza overlooking a pretty lake. To 
the back rises the wooded slope of a hill. 

Vossevangen is a prosperous place, for it is the 
market-garden of Bergen. Most of the fruits and 
vegetables in the Bergen markets came from this 
little town. As we walk up and down the streets, 
waiting for the train to Bergen, we see load after load 
of potatoes, peas, beans, and strawberries and other 
fruits on their way to the station to be shipped to 
the Rain}^ City. 

A regiment of soldiers, too, is being sent through 
Vossevangen. The men wear helmets, and silver- 
colored ornaments on their gray uniforms, while the 
officers are dressed in blue and gold. A very jolly 
company they are, as, like ourselves, they walk up 
and down the streets. 

The Norwegian army is small, but able to do much 
brave fighting because of its careful training. There 
has, however, been no opportunity to try its real 
strength for many years, for Norway has long en- 
joyed peace. Norwegian boys receive military drill 
in many of the schools. Later, the life of a soldier 
is followed as earnestly as a Norwegian youth fol- 
lows any calling he chooses. The king is the com- 
mander-in-chief of the army. 

There is in the Norwegian army a corps of skaters, 
or skiers. They are armed with repeating rifles. 
It is said they can move as rapidly as the best trained 
cavalry, and have astonished the officers of other 
nations in their practice contests. They can travel 
on the ice a distance of eighty miles a day, carrying 
ail their equipments. 



80 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

Every able-bodied young man when he reaches 
the age fixed by law must serve in the army. The 
only exception made is in the case of the men of 
Finnmark, the northernmost province of Norway. 
The Government considers that the Finnmarkers 
have enough to do to wrest their living from the 
frozen soil of that Arctic land, so they are exempted 
from the long service required of others. 

HARDANQER 

One day's journey from Bergen brings us to the 
last fjord we shall visit — beautiful Hardanger, the 
fjord most visited by tourists. The captain of our 
steamer tells us it is 68 miles long, but with all its 
arms it measures 140 miles. 

From an island outside the fjord a little boat brings 
our Norwegian pilot, who climbs the rope ladder 
like a cat. Steering a vessel between these many 
islands is a difficult task, but he takes the helm as 
though it were the simplest thing in the world. 

And now it is lunch time; but in order that we may 
not miss too much of the beautiful scenery, the steamer 
slows up until we are on deck again. Partly by 
islands and partly by points of land locked together, 
Hardanger is divided into a number of sections which 
seem much like lakes. 

''How different from Sogne!" all exclaim, as the 
beautiful view opens out before us. The scenery 
of Hardanger is famed not only for its grandeur, 
but for its beauty and variety as well. Countless 
little islands of green like the one we have passed 
fill the entrance, while upon Hardanger's highest 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



81 



mountain-top is the snow-mantle of the Folgefond. 
From this snow-mass descend several glaciers which 
terminate in leaping, sparkling waterfalls. Lower 
on the mountainside grow grass and firs, alders and 
birches, making this fjord much less drear than Sogne. 
Hardanger has 
many farms and 
red- tiled peas- 
ant cottages 
upon its lower 
slopes. Fields of 
golden grain 
wave in the sun- 
light. The water 
is a beautiful 
azure, and the 
sky is bright. 
Even the faces 
of the Hardan- 
ger people are 
in marked con- 
trast to those 

of the people of Sogne. Here the peasants seem con- 
tented and happy, while there they were haggard 
and worn. 

The Hardanger costume is the gayest and most 
picturesque of all Norway. The women wear a 
dark but bright short skirt bordered with bright 
velvet and tinsel, over which is a long apron, often 
with gay stripes running crosswise or a border of 
the Hardanger embroidery now seen in the stores 
at home. The bright red bodice is cut low and 




MAKING HAY 



82 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

heavily beaded in a design looking much like a breast- 
plate, with dangling disks and ornaments. Under- 
neath the bodice is a full-sleeved white waist. 

Married women wear a peculiar winged head-dress 
of white, with crimped cambric fastened close around 
the face and rolled over a wooden frame. It flares 
very broadl}^ at the sides, and hangs far down the 
back. The women often have fancy pockets hang- 
ing at the side from which they take their knitting 
as they walk along. The hair of the Hardanger 
girls is braided with ribbons, and sometimes a little 
beaded cap is worn. The men of Hardanger wear 
very wide trousers of coarse homespun, and slouch 
hats. Their jackets have many silver buttons. The 
quaint silver jewelry worn by the peasants of this 
region has many pendent disks 'and crosses. 

As our steamer glides up this long arm of Har- 
danger, the shores press close together. Steep moun- 
tains rise on either side. At the head of the fjord 
nestles the little village of Odde, well-known to 
tourists. 

In the distance are a number of glaciers, which 
end in waterfalls, for this valley is an outlet of the 
Folgefonden glacier, an immense perpetual snow- 
mass measuring 108 square miles. One of its streams 
is called the Buarbrae. It flows through a valley so 
narrow that the glacier fills it completely and stands 
a wall of ice four or five hundred feet high. At the 
foot of the glacier are a number of grottoes, out of 
which the melted glacier flows as a sparkling, dash- 
ing, foaming waterfall. Over this stream is a wicker 
bridge which looks too frail to be trusted. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 83 

This is surely the region of waterfalls! Besides 
the Buarbrae stream there is the Laatefos, one of 
the grandest falls in Norway, while within sight of 
Odde is also the Espelandsfos, almost as beautiful 
as Laatefos. Besides these, only a good day's journey 
away, we are told, is what some judges hold to be 
the finest fall in all the country, the Skaeggedalfos. 
Then, for one who is not afraid of hard climbing, 
there is the Round Valley Fall to be visited. From 
the foot of the cataract one can look up and see the 
water leap over the ledge, over eight hundred feet 
above, in one great mass, and then dash to spray 
below. The noise is deafening. The black and frown- 
ing cliff hangs over one. 

On account of the beautiful scenery surrounding 
it, the little town of Odde has become famous. It 
is famous, also, for its violins, the finest being the 
''Hardanger." These have six under strings and four 
upper, the upper tuned either in unison or harmony. 

One would think that so near the great snow-cap 
of the I^olgefond strawberries would never grow, 
yet grow they do in surprising quantities. We meet 
children on the road selling them in green leaf-baskets. 

THE NORWEGIAN PEOPLE 

The men of Norway are rather thickly and strongly 
built, though not very tall. Both men and women 
have fair complexions, light, silky hair, and the very 
bluest of eyes. First cousins, indeed, they must be 
to the ancient Angles of whom St. Gregory said when 
he beheld them, "Not Angles but angels!" 

The Norwegians are absolutely honest. If any 



84 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

article of our baggage is mislaid we need have no 

fear. It may be a little slow in being returned to 

us, but returned it will surely be, and in good condi- 
tion. Then, too, 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m Norwegian shop- 

^^^^^^^I^^^^^^^^^^^H keepers do 

^^^^^^r^^^^^^^H^^^H try to take 

^^^^^ ^^H^^^H vantage 

H^^B#k ^ ^I^^B^I ist- customers, 

^^^K ^^^ ^^^^^H either in prices 

|^^B%%?^^^^ ^^^H ^^ ^^ making 

I^bF ij^i^l ^^1 change. 

■j^Ht ^B. ^^ These people 

^^^W ^.«pM|^ Mli%|r'''''''""'- — "i are courteous, 

^^^H^^^HpP^i^b I kind ' - hearted, 

i^^P^^ z*^' '* inH^L M ^^^ hospitable. 

W^^g 4' J^^K^^^ m '^^^^ questions 

W m SBm ^^m ^onc e rning 

f JL^ ^^^E ^H routes, historical 

yP|^H|KH^E H places, beautiful 

V?fB|^^H^V ■ scenery, or Nor- 

'^^M^^^^^^V I wegian life are 

^ — answered po- 

NORWEGiAN WOMAN htely, aud a real 

interest is taken 
in those who come from other lands. Often the 
Norwegians put themselves out a great deal to serve 
travelers. They always set before their guests the 
best fare at their disposal, though it may be plain. 
The cordial custom of shaking hands with strangers 
is followed here in so hearty a way as to make one 
from another land feel quite at home. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 85 

These descendants of the Vikings show as much 
perseverance and bravery in batthng with their 
poor soil and frost-locked lands as did the old sea 
kings in battling with the waves. Norway stands 
abreast of the leading countries of the world in cul- 
ture, education and general advancement, if not in 
material wealth. No other nation, however, keeps 
its position with so terrible an effort as Norway, so 
we should honor and admire the Norwegians for 
what they have accomplished. 

Although the Norwegian people come much in 
contact with other nations, they cling to their sim- 
ple ways, quaint dress, and interesting customs. 
Even their names are distinctive. If the father's 
name is Ole Johnson, his oldest son's name will be 
Ole Oleson, and all the rest of his sons will have Oleson 
for their surname, and the daughters will bear the 
name of Olesdatter (Die's daughter). The first grand- 
son, however, will be named after his grandfather. 

It is not surprising that Norway has produced a 
long list of noted men, for the disadvantages of soil 
and climate in this Northland have served to make 
the people not only brave and hardy, but perserver- 
ing and thoughtful. These qualities, added to the 
excellent schools of Norway, give the Norwegians as 
a nation a very high degree of intelligence. 

NORWEGIAN SCHOOLS 

The schools, although far apart in the thinly settled 
regions, are excellent. Every child is compelled 
to attend school, and there are few Norwegians who 
cannot read and write. German and English are 



S6 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

spoken by many of the people. These languages 
are taught in a number of the schools. There is 
throughout the land a great respect for education. 
The handsomest building in a town or village is usually 
the schoolhouse, and teachers, governesses, and tutors 
are looked up to with the utmost respect and esteem. 

In the common schools reading, writing, arithmetic, 
geography, history, Bible history and the catechism 
are taught. In many schools the boys have gym- 
nastics and military drill. Once a year all the boys 
of the public schools unite for a military parade. 
This is made a gala-day. Some of the schools have 
bands, which furnish the music, and after the parade 
the boys are given a grand feast. 

Another great day, though a trying one, in the 
life of a Norwegian boy or girl is that of the public 
examination before the parish pastor and the other 
members of the school committee. Every child over 
nine must take this examination. In Norway the 
Church and the schools are very closely connected. 
Not only the Church but the law forbids any boy or 
girl being confirmed who has not been sent to school 
to receive religious teaching, and who cannot read 
the Bible. 

In many of the wild and remote parts of the coun- 
try the people are too scattered to maintain a school. 
In such regions teachers are sent from farm to farm, 
living with each family for a time in order to teach 
the children. These home schools are called ^'Am- 
bulatory Schools." 

In a number of towns industrial schools similar 
to that of Bergen have been started. Here boys 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



87 



learn the different trades and girls the household 
arts. Besides these there are agricultural schools, 
schools of forestry, a military and naval school, an 
art school, six schools of navigation, and at the head 
of all the famous University of Norway at Christiania, 
which has drawn 
its pupils from 
nearly all the 
countries of 
Europe as well as 
from the home 
land. 

Indeed, Norway 
may justly be 
proud of her 
school system, 
and it is largely 
to the opportu- 
nities afforded 
them for learn- 
ing that the Nor- 
wegians owe the self-respect and self-reliance for 
which they are noted the world over. 

The little folks of Norway are very carefully reared. 
They are taught to revere the aged, and to look upon 
the grandfather's blessing as something very serious 
and important. They respect highly their pastor 
and teacher, and show them great deference. 

Norwegian babies are rolled up in bandages much 
like German babies. A Norwegian mother often 
ties her little one up in a shawl and carries it on her 
back to the hayfield, but once there the baby is 




NORWEGIAN CniLDREK 



88 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

hung to the hmb of a birch or spruce for the wmd to 
rock to sleep. At home its cradle is often only a 
box hung from the ceiling by stout cords fastened 
to the corners. 

As soon as a Norwegian child is old enough to use 
his little hands at all he is taught to do some useful 
work. The girls learn to knit, spin and weave upon 
the large hand-looms still found in many homes. 
While still very young they learn the simpler pat- 
terns of the home-made embroidery, lace and bead- 
ing. They are also taught to make butter and cheese, 
to cook, and care for the household clothing and pro- 
visions. Norwegian boys early begin their lessons 
in gardening, tool-making, and wood-carving. 

The girls dress much like their mothers, with the 
exception of the head-dress, which is lacking in the 
girls' costume. The boys' costume closely resembles 
that of their fathers. Even the very poorest chil- 
dren have neat clothes to wear to school, for in this 
the parents take much pride. 

SPORTS AND AMUSEMENTS 

It would almost seem that the Norwegians, with 
the hard work they are obliged to do, and the dreari- 
ness of the country, especially in winter, would have 
few amusements, but such is not the case. These 
people seem to get much enjoyment out of simple 
pastimes. The long dark winter is the principal 
season for pleasure, though the summer has its share. 

The summer season is longer than one would sup- 
pose. When winter does break up, it vanishes 
as though by magic, and summer comes with a bound. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 89 

By Ma}^ city people move to their summer homes and 
a round of pleasure begins. Picnics, fishing, boating, 
and all kinds of outdoor games make the fjords at 
this season almost as gay as in the winter. Bathing 
is always a popular sport, though somewhat 'dangerous 
for any but good swimmers. The fjords are very 
deep and the shores ver}^ steep. Sometimes, too, 
there are jelly-fish about with a poison which stings 
the skin of the bather. Many of the villas have bath- 
houses with cages to keep the jelly-fish out. 

In winter and spring the men go in small parties 
up the steep, snow-covered' mountainsides to hunt 
bears in the dense forests. In the north and west 
wild reindeer and the giant elk also are tracked over 
the snow. Sometimes a Norway elk stands 6^^ feet 
high and weighs 1,500 pounds. In Norway the elk 
are more numerous during severe winters than at 
any other time. It is said they are driven to seek 
shelter from Russian wolves. The wolf is afraid to 
cross the metal rails of the Trondhjem-Christiania 
railway, and the elk is not, so it seeks safety by cross- 
ing the line. The elk is hvmted with dogs trained for 
the purpose. 

The fjords, lakes and rivers are very gay in win- 
ter. Then men, women, and children go out on the 
ice to skate. They practive fancy figures and high 
speed skating and often hold contests for prizes. 
A very pretty sight it must be to see hundreds of 
people on the ice at night, each carrying his torch. 

One would think that everyone is out for a good 
time; yet the fishermen come to ply their trade in 
sober earnest. They appear, however, to have as 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 91 

much fun as anyone. They may be seen pigging 
almost any day in winter. Pigging is sitting on a 
sled and pushing it along with two spiked sticks. 
Over rough ice these fishermen can go faster on a 
sled than on skates, and can also carry their fishing 
tackle more easily. They cut holes in the ice through 
which to fish. This makes skating exceedingly dan- 
gerous, but danger seems only to make the sport more 
attractive. 

Sleighing is another favorite pastime in Norway. 
At Christmas sleighing parties are often formed to 
ride even the long distance from Christiania to one 
of the western fjords. Such a ride takes four or five 
days. Women as well as men enjoy these long sleigh 
rides in midwinter. 

Great interest is taken in racing, and there are 
trotting clubs all over the country. Instead of the 
races being held in mild weather on a ground track, 
they take place in the winter, on ice. The races 
usually meet during the second week of February. 
Then not only do all the villagers go down to the 
lake to witness the gay scene, but people from all 
parts come, by rail, by post-road, on foot, and on 
skis. Norwegian races are as gay as the Derby in 
England. The quaint, bright dress of both men and 
women make the scene a festive one, for here are 
usually to be seen the picturesque peasant costumes 
from many sections. 

Coasting is another Norwegian amusement. The 
sled may be long enough only for one, or it may seat 
eight. Usually it holds only two. The steering is 
done with a pole fifteen or twenty feet long, held at 



92 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



one end in the hand and gripped between the arm 
and the side. The other end of the pole trails off 

behind over the 
snow and serves 
the same purpose 
as the rudder of 
a boat. 

The national 
sport, however, is 
not skating or 
racing or coast- 
ing, but skiing. 
Skis ^re long, 
narrow skates 
turned up at the 
front end like a 
toboggan and 
fastened to the 
feet by straps. Think of wearing skates ten feet 
long! It requires infinite skill, too, to use them. 
They must be kept exactly parallel, or the ends are 
sure to hit together and trip one up. 

Skis were first used, and are still used, as a means 
of travel in districts where there are no highways or 
where the roads are buried under deep snow. On 
skis one can travel where it would be impossible for 
a horse or man to walk. Few sports give such op- 
portunity of showing presence of mind and courage 
as this. 

A great skiing contest is held near Christiania^ 
about the middle of February. There are really 
two contests— a time-race thirteen miles' across coun- 




IN HOLIDAY ATTIRE 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 93 

try, and a leaping race on the slope of a hill, with a 
lake at its foot. 

Early in the morning of the day on which the leap- 
ing race occurs, the roads are thronged with people 
come to witness the leap, or hoprend, as they call it. 
The slope is 190 yards in length, and the starting- 
point is 160 feet above the lake, while the terrace from 
which the leap is made is two-thirds of the way down. 
The whole descent takes only from seven to nine 
seconds. The leap here is 90 feet, but 100 in some 
places is not uncommon, and even 120 was once made. 

Dancing is popular in Norway, and in some parts 
forms almost the only entertainment at the long 
winter evening parties, at fairs, and at weddings. 
There are few Norwegians who cannot dance, and 
many are very pretty dancers, though the Norwegian 
dances are very unlike ours. 

HOLIDAYS 

Norway seems to have its share of holidays. Na- 
tional Independence Day, the day corresponding to 
our Fourth of July, comes on May 17th. It celebrates 
the freeing of Norway from Danish rule, and is ob- 
served much as is our Fourth, with cannons, fire- 
works, and big parades, but without the fire-crackers. 

Everywhere on Independence Day flags are seen, 
as in fact they are on nearly all fete-days and even 
on birthdays. The Norwegians make more of their 
flag than even we make of our Stars and Stripes. 
They seem to think that people of other lands must 
love it, too, for everywhere it is displayed in the shops, 
among souvenirs for foreigners. 

In this interesting country there are two Christ- 



94 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



mases — one on the 25th of December, as with us, 
and another on the 21st of June — only neither is 
called Christmas. The winter holiday is Jule, or 

Yule, and the 
summer, St. 
Han's or St. 
John's Day. St. 
John's marks the 
longest day in the 
year. Balefires 
are lighted to 
celebrate the 
triumph of light 
over darkness, 
the victory of the 
summer sun over 
the long winter 
night. In some 
localities every 
family lights its fire and some people set their boats 
ablaze, letting them drift out upon the waters of 
the fjord as a funeral-rite for the death of darkness 
at the hand of the summer sun. 

On St. John's Day everything is decked in green, 
but the greens are not the same as those of Yule- 
tide. On this midsummer holiday principalh^ beech 
and birch are used for decorations. Carts, wagons, 
carriages and even railway locomotives are trimmed, 
and nearly every window of every house has a branch 
of green sticking out of it. City people go into the 
country, and country people go into the city. All 
feast and have a jolly time. 




A CHURCH YARD 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORAVAY 95 

The Norwegians have one pretty custom both on St. 
Han's Day and at Yule-tide. They put out sheaves 
of rye or barley on a pole as a feast for the birds. 
This is so regular a practice that many people keep 
their pole alwa3^s standing near the house or fastened 
to the roof of the barn. 

Of all the holidays in this Northland Christmas is 
the most joyous. The Scandinavians used to believe 
that Jule was the giant of darkness and that Baldur 
(or some sa}^ Thor), was the god of light. These two 
had a battle twice a year. In December the sun-god 
got the worst of it, but at midsummer he conquered 
Jule. A Jule, or Yule log was burned in December 
as a prophecy that in the next battle the god of light 
would again win. 

The Yule decorations are of pine, spruce, and fir. 
Everything is trimmed as on St. John's Day. The 
good housewife goes to the storehouse and takes down 
a part of the flat-bread from where the big round cakes 
are hanging by a string passed through a hole in their 
center. This is to be given to the poor to make their 
Christmas happier. 

The Yule-tide celebration, however, really begins 
two weeks before. The house is carefully SAvept, 
the tables are scrubbed, and the greens are gathered. 
These are not merely hung on the wall, as with us, but 
are also sprinkled over the floor. The women bake 
sweet-cakes and a fresh supply of flat-bread, while the 
men hunt the deer or fish. A sheep is killed and 
made into sausage, which takes the place of our Christ- 
mas turkey. The tree is brought into the hall and 
hung with candles. The greens are placed on wall 



96 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



and floor, and all the fine dishes and old tankards are 
brought out. 

When all is ready the family hold prayers, and then 
the children light candles and hang them around 
the room; after this is finished all look with happy 
eyes toward the beautiful tree. 

The Christmas dinner-table is long and narrow. 
In the middle is a big pile of flat-bread, while around 
it are dishes of cheese, a large roll of butter, 

o f t e n weighing 
twenty or thirty 
pounds, and 
brown bread of 
r3^e or barley, 
with prunes, cara- 
way, and spice 
in it. When this 
course is finished, 
the family sings 
songs. Then 
come fish and 
sausage, potatoes 
and onions, and 
lastly the cakes 
are brought on. 
When the meal is ended all say, ''Thank you," to 
the mother and lead her into the next room while 
they sing carols. 

Yule lasts till January 6th. After the first day, 
which is generally spent at home or with relatives, 
there is much visiting among neighboring families, and 
at these gatherings dancing is the usual entertainment. 





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A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 97 

Of holiday sports the children have their full share. 
At Yule-tide they are given many pleasures. They 
are allowed to wear their prettiest clothes, which 
for the girls are dresses of ga}^ homespun, and for 
the boys garments of bright colors, especially red 
and blue. On Chrstimas Eve it is the children who 
-light the candles on the tree as well as those which 
are placed around the room. 

Later, on the same evening, each child takes a 
lighted torch to guide him on his way to church. It 
is really beautiful to see all these lights moving tow- 
ard the same place. The children carry with them 
gifts for the poor, for they are taught while young 
to sympathize with those in need. After the ser- 
vice the pastor stands at the front of the church 
with his back to them, to receive their gifts. And 
then what a race there is for home! for the one who 
gets there first is supposed to be the happiest child 
for the whole year to come. 

The children are sure to be up bright and early on 
Christmas morning, for this is the time they are al- 
lowed to play their little pranks. Sometimes the 
boys tie their sister in bed, or steal her shoes, or lock 
her into her room. But these jokes are all taken 
good-naturedly. 

Often it is . the children who gather the grain in 
the autumn for the birds' Christmas dinner, or save 
their pennies to buy it with. On Chirstmas, too, the 
dog has his chain taken off and the cows are fed twice 
as much as usual. In all this the children delight 
to take part. 

On Christmas night there is a sudden rap at the 



98 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

door and in rush a number of maskers, who make 
jokes and sing songs until the ale is passed, when 
they disappear as suddenly as they came. Finally 
the time comes for the children to form a procession 
and march around the tree, singing carols as they 
march. Before the presents are distributed, however, 
they sit down, each child being allowed to go to the 
tree for his gift when his name is called. 

Norway has a kind of Santa Claus — though not 
one like ours — who gives presents. Nys is his name, 
and he is a sort of brownie, though he is often rep- 
resented as having a long white beard and white 
hair, a jolly face and dress of fur. Nys is a cheery 
old fellow, if only he can have his own way, but one 
must be careful not to cross him. Christmas Eve 
is his very own, so special pains are taken to please 
him by setting his favorite dishes outside the door 
for him. These are pudding and Yule cakes. Of 
course he can pass through a door though it be barred, 
but he wishes to find his food waiting for him out- 
side. If it is not there, woe be to that household! 
The farm animals, perhaps, will all be tired the next 
day because Nys has been playing tricks upon them 
and keeping them awake; or perhaps everything 
around the barn will be in confusion.- 

If, however, Nys finds his Yule dish outside, often 
the chores are all done when the father goes to the 
barn in the morning. The horses have been curried 
the wood spHt, and the cows milked, having given 
two or three times the usual amount of milk. One 
must never speak of Nys above a whisper, as that is 
particularly displeasing to him. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY \)\) 

A NORWEGIAN WEDDING 

And now most happily for us we have been invited 
to a Hardanger wedding, for at a Hardanger wedding 
we shall see the gayest of all Norwegian bridal cos- 
tumes. Our good landlady knows how interested we 
are, and has asked the privilege of taking us with her 
to see a young friend of hers married. 

We set out early for the fjord, for the wedding party 
are to come by boat, and we are anxious that no 
part of this interesting ceremony escape us. Soon 
they come around a turn in the fjord. The boat 
ahead contains the bride and groom, and is tiimmed 
with flags and garlands of bright flowers, and gay 
streamers at the mast-head. It is a twenty-oared 
boat and holds nearly all the party, though three or 
four small boats follow^ at a little distance. 

The bride and groom sit on a raised seat in the 
stern, and look very happy and gay in their bridal 
costumes. The bride wears a white waist, with full 
sleeves gathered into a band at the wrist and over 
this a bright red gold-embroidered bodice with straps 
over the shoulder and trimming of gold lace. It is 
something the shape of the bib of a kitchen apron. 
The girdle is embroidered to match the bodice. Three 
stripes of embroidery down the front trim the white 
apron, which is worn over a full dark-green skirt. 

The bride also wears the quaint old silver brooches, 
rings, and pendants, and the rich silver crow^n that 
have all been in her family for generations, perhaps 
for centuries. The crown is of filigree with little 
bars topped with silver balls standing high and flar- 



100 A LITTLE JOURNEl TO NORWAY 

ing at the top. From these hang little chains with 
scalloped ornaments at the ends, which dangle back 
and forth with very move of the head. 

A short round jacket fastened with one button 
below the neck, but having rows of silver buttons at 
the side, is a part of the bridegroom's costume. His 
waistcoat has the same kind of buttons, only smaller, 
while etiquette seems to prescribe trousers of home- 
spun ending at the knee, and shoes with buckles. 
A tall felt hat completes his costume. 

The church floor is strewn with juniper twigs. A 
long black gown and big white ruff is the costume 
worn by the minister. His sober dress sets off well 
the gay costume of the bride and groom. Although 
we do not understand all the ceremony, it seems very 
solemn and impressive. 

The bridal party go home as they came, in their 
boats, the rowers singing native songs as they row. 

When they return to the bride's home there will be 
great doings, with a big feast, firing of guns, and danc- 
ing. Besides flat-bread, man}^ kinds of meat, fish, 
and cheese, salads, and desserts, one of the great 
dainties will be smbrbrod. This is above all a wedding 
dish. In olden times the wedding festival used to 
last a whole week. 

It is the custom here in Norway for the groom 
to carve the beautiful family treasure chest, and also 
to cut mottoes over the doors and on the bed-posts. 
These carvings are long treasured in the family, like 
the silver crowns and brooches. Over a doorway is 
sometimes carved this motto: "God save this house; 
bless also all who go in and all who go out here." 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 101 

NORSE VIKINGS 

The ancient Vikings furnish the most interesting 
chapter in all Norwegian history. Every one has 
heard or read of them. Some of us, indeed, saw the 
Viking ship which Norway sent to the Columbian 
Exposition. In the museum of the University of 
Christiania is the vessel — more than a thousand 
years old — after which the Columbian ship was 
modeled. 

The Vikings, as we know, lived long ago. They 
were bold Scandinavian seamen who sailed in their 
quaint boats to the shores of other countries, first 
to plunder, and finally to settle. The word vik in 
Old Norse meant creek, so the Vikings were lords 
of the creeks and the fjords. 

The old Viking ships were long and narrow, with 
a high prow and stern terminating in a carved figure, 
usually a dragon's head. These figure-heads were 
nearly always painted in bright colors, as were, also, 
the great round wooden shields along the side of 
the ship. Red, white and black were favorite shield- 
colors. These old vessels were often large enough 
to carry a hundred or more men. 

At the end of the eighth century the Norsemen 
learned the use of sails from the Romans, and very 
picturesque their ships then looked. Sometimes the 
sails were white, but usually they were of bright colors, 
and often gayly striped. A preparation of oil and 
tar was smeared over them, as the sails of fishing 
boats to-day are sometimes treated, to prevent mil- 
dew. 

With the Norsemen's adoption of sails began the 



102 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORAVAY 

great Viking Age. The men of the north ventured 
across the sea and ravaged the coast of England, 
Scotland, Ireland, France, and even the Mediter- 
ranean countries. For a thousand years one of the 
titles of the Norwegian ruler has been ^'King of the 
Goths," and King Oscar includes it in his title to-day. 

The ancient Viking boat was not only the bold 
Norseman's home on the ocean wave, but his sepulcher 
as well. When a Viking died, he was laid in his 
ship (which had been drawn up on shore), his war- 
gear and drinking horn beside him, while near him 
were placed his faithful dog and war-steed. The 
vessel was headed toward the sea, so that when called 
once more into life by Odin, the chieftain might be 
ready to start upon another voyage over the waves 
he loved. The boat was covered with birch-bark, 
then with blue-clay and buried deep, with a mound 
of earth and stones to mark the spot. 

In earlier times a Viking's burial was still more 
imposing. His beloved ship was anchored upon the 
shore and his body laid within. Not only were his 
jewels and weapons, and favorite steed placed beside 
him, but even his servants and members of his family 
took their stand upon the ship to meet death by the 
hero's side, for this was his funeral pyre. The vessel 
was set on fire and the anchor loosed. Then the 
ship, all aflame, drifted out into the sunset. 

Not only did these bold Vikings plunder and sub- 
due countries of Europe, but they even crossed the 
Atlantic in their high-prowed ships to Iceland, Green- 
land, and the mainland of America. To-day their 
descendants are coming by the thousands to America 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NOLWAY 103 

and finding homes, chiefly in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, 
Minnesota and Dakota. 

Not only have the Norsemen made their own coun- 
try great, but they have added much to our land. 
The home farms are so small and scanty, fishing so 
dangerous, and other occupations so crowded that 
many of the younger people have been forced to seek 
in America the opportunities they long for. Spring 
is the favorite season for emigration. Then the 
wharves of Norwegian ports are lined with those 
who are going to try their fortunes in other lands. 
Good Friday is the favorite sailing day, since these 
pious people believe that this holy day signifies the 
burial of all their past troubles and that the future 
will be like a glad Easter morning, when new life 
shall come to them. 

But how can we leave this wonderful land — this 
land of mountains and ice-fields, of waterfalls and 
fjords, this land of the midnight sun — which has re- 
paid us so many times over, for what seemed perhaps 
at times difficult traveling? Yet other lands await 
us and we must say farewell. 



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